Travel States Within Doug’s Republic

Doug's inner eye to world escapism

“Travel is a wonderful way to get in touch with what your own inner eye is seeing — or, if not that, to try to run away from all of your problems.” Doug Knell, Doug’s Republic

In the East McDonnell Ranges, I was asked by two matronly Australian females why I was traveling.   They didn’t want a detailed answer.  The answer was multiple choice, with just two possibilities:  I was either running towards something or running away.

Reflecting on the question several weeks afterwards, I realized I was doing both.  For years, living in overrated California, I had often felt like I was running in place.  Upon leaving that overglorified cosmetically- and genetically- modified circus show, it would not be inaccurate to say I was running away from or steering clear of a similar sort of meaningless existence down the line.  What I was running towards was a life of my own devising that I could look back on later with pride, not just as time that had passed away on a calendar.

Travel gave me the option to assess my life and what I wanted out of it.   This sounds like something so elementary that anyone should be able to do it between trips to the local Chinese take-out.  It’s not.  In your day-to-day existence, doing the same old thing month after month, it’s too easy to lose sight of what matters.

Does that mean that every traveler sporting a backpack and a round-the-world trip ticket is the coming generation’s Enlightened Buddha?   Afraid not.  When I first strapped on a backpack in Europe in 1988, I never professed to have all, most, or even some of the answers.   I still don’t.  I played down whatever I did in an era that pre-dated the internet, ubiquitous mobile phone usage, and daily travel blog updates.  It required some guts and a ton of uncertainty to travel far afield then, in a time that seems like it may as well have been fifty years ago for how fast things have changed since then.

[Click the picture of my beautiful eyes to read the rest of this brilliant article]

Related posts:

1. Voltaire Brown’s Don’t Travel Europe
2. Travel Gear For Australia
3. Travel To Thailand
4. Bus Travel In Thailand