Damn. I can't belive it's Sunday and I''m coming home in three more days. I've been anxious and ready to get home for a while now because it seemed so close, but now I can't believe its over. Travel isn't something I'd reccomend for everybody, you really have to feel up to it, and you also have to feel you can handle almost anything that will come up. Theres definitely no way you can be prepared for it all, you just have to know you can handle it.
I think the real point of the whole thing is the actual travelling, just covering all that ground. Its really a trip to switch back and forth between languages, customs, and such on an almost daily basis, it can be confusing. I get a massive personal satisfaction from knowing I have covered all the ground from one place on a map to another. A friend and I made it to Amsterdam from Rome in 22 hours, and looking at the map afterwards we were pretty pleased with ourselves knowing we had ridden that massive distance on a train, straight over the ground that whole time.
I'm in Amsterdam again, and I've gotten pretty familiar with this place. I can tell my hostel friends what trams to take where, when, and why you would want to go to the Rokerij over the GreenHouse. After a while you start to feel the energy of a place, and get in the rhythm of life. This happens everywhere, but it takes a different rhythm to help you realize there was a rhythm in the first place. After a while, you just know where to go, and thats the next thing I want to talk about.
The most important part of traveling (and other good travelers agree) is to pay attention to yourself and your own reactions to what you see. I call it 'reading omens' in a goofy metaphysical way, but there are actually omens there. So after you get into a mode where you are ready to sense a deep energy, you have to start getting in tune with how your body vibrates with that energy. If you see a street that strikes a chord with you and you feel good about it, you have to go down that street! This is so important to how I travel. Too many times I have met people who just want to 'see' what else there is... and they never just appreciate where they already are. This is not the way to travel. Your feelings are there to help you, listen to them.
Finally the story of the camera man. Once upon a time there was a traveler. All the people who knew him called him Tourist because he lived his whole life never really seeing, at least not for himself. He knew he could'nt really see because whenever he saw something really special, he had to take a picture to save it and look at it later. Maybe he would show it to his friends because they might see something he didn't. Even they realized that what they were seeing wasn't anything at all, it was just a well rendered 2 dimensional copy, so they didn't really see it either. One fateful day, the Tourist's camera was stolen, and since it was everything to him, he simply froze on the spot like a statue. It was if his whole life was gone because he hadn't figured out his pictures and now they were gone. So he was frozen, looking at the ground; after all the great things he had seen in his life he was forced to watch a single scurrying ant. At first it bored him, he was about to see the Grand Chapel of Colisseum Greatness and this was nothing compared to that. Then he just watched the ant go about its business and soon enough it began to interest him how the ant walked. Soon he was fascinated. He wanted to study ants forever. He wanted to find out all he could, and when he decided this about what once bored him, he was unfrozen. He spent the rest of the day just looking at all the wonders of the ground, and then slowly, day by day he knew he could really see, and he looked at the world with different eyes.
Someone told me this story and I don't think I'll ever be a tourist again.
So I'm off to do some shopping and find a decent tattoo shop. Be back soon.
Love,
Forrest
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4 comments:
Are you getting a tattoo that say Europe 2007?! haha, seriously, did you get a tattoo?!...mom is freaking out. can't wait to see you soon!!! love & safe travels home..ward bound!
Forrest,
I was hoping you would wait on the tattoo until we could do it together.
You said before you realize now that you will never again take anything for granted. That is a valuable lesson because what you spend a lifetime earning and what you come to value, can be gone in an instant. It is the character you build and the intestinal fortitude to live by your true values that will carry you through hard times and life's unexpected trials. To your words, "Theres now way you can be prepared for it all, you just have to know you can handle it."
I believe life to be all travel...even if you never leave your hometown. Your analogy of the Tourist and your new found ability to intuitively recognize "omens" holds the key to drawing parallels between choosing places to visit and one's life choices.
Do you choose the street, or path, of morality and virtue, or the street of unethical behavior? As you know from your travels, all choices are possible and there are many things to experience: loyalty, greed, kindness, honesty, and in the case of your defense of the Japanese boy in Paris, compassion and valor. The choices are endless and omnipresent.
Like traveling, you will cover much ground in growing older and experiencing the ramifications, both good and bad, of the choices you have made and streets you have visited. The trip will be much more rewarding if can look back
on your progress with satisfaction. And like your Tourist came to learn, what matters is appreciation for yourself, not merely projecting an image to satisfy and impress others.
Just remember, my dear son, that unlike travel, in life there are no highlighted maps, no Eurorail timetables, and no defined departing and arrival locations. You will have to rely on your sense of internal energy and your ability to truly "see."
You will have many more travels Forrest. I am so proud that you are learning values that are as equally important in B.S. as they are in Paris.
Thus ends my little Sunday morning dissertation, and I know it is a little long; however, since you are spending several days in Amsterdam, you may have time to reflect on this writing in various states of mind and reflection yourself.
If not hearing from you before, I will see you Wednesday.
Love,
Pop
P.S. I found a kick ass bass player.
Wow, that was deep, man. I cannot believe that you are getting a tattoo...but then again, yes I can. On the other hand, this may just be another reverse psychology mind trick to see how we would all react to such an action. Either way, I am sure that it will kick ass, I just can't wait till you come back. I will probably be at your house with your mom when or after you get there, so I guess I will see you on monday. Oh, and be ready to party when you get back, The Hermann's annual is Saturday Night!!
-p
Scratch that...My logic actually reads that I will wee you on Wednesday. Silly me...
-p
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