I love to travel, and by travel I mean “go anyplace.” I know most people think of Travel as something grand involving lots of planning & packing & maybe talking with other people, sometimes in another language, and I also love that kind (except the talking with other people if I don’t already know them and it’s in excess of a few minutes).
Recently I heard Agnes Callard interviewed on NPR, discussing her article in The New Yorker about how, basically, people should not bother traveling. I was happily assembling a Hello Fresh dinner as public radio chatted gently in the background when suddenly this woman blithely asserted that everyone travels for foolish reasons, one being because they have no imagination. I gasped. My loving, unsuspecting husband came in from the garage at that moment to check on dinner but quietly retreated as I raged at the radio. You can listen to/read her thesis (supported by a few ill-interpreted/out of context quotes, I might add with saucy English teacher attitude) but even better, check out Jill Filipovic’s magnificently smart + calm refutations at The Guardian. Her words helped me calm the hornet’s nest of disagreement in my mind by bringing the point back to indvidual experiences and our personal responsibility to be intentional, pay attention, & grow a little bit:
…Callard doesn’t make the case that travel isn’t for her; she makes the case that travel is overrated as a general rule. She’s wrong – she’s entitled to her personal preferences, but travel is often all its cracked up to be. And we’d probably be better off if more people were willing to experience new places with open minds, and had the grit to work through the inevitable discomforts of doing so.
Travel, for many of us, is not just wonderful but essential. That’s not because travel necessarily makes us better people, although in the best of circumstances it can. It’s not because travel totally transforms us – it rarely does. It is because travel both scratches a primal urge and helps us develop the skills to build richer lives.
I’m still a little grouchy about Callard’s cavalier dismissal of many people’s genuinely beloved endeavors. She herself went to a falcon hospital in Abu Dhabi where a bird grasped her arm but she doesn’t “remember it that well” so in the end it clearly wasn’t worth doing, which is fine FOR HER I guess. But my immediate thoughts at that anecdote were a) Why did she bother going on that tour? and b) What would she have rather done instead and why didn’t she do that? and c) I WANT TO HAVE A FALCON ON MY ARM.
Also, it reminded me of when I got to walk with, feed, and wash elephants in Thailand. But when I recalled that in the context of Callard’s perspective, which is that people disingenuously do “what they think they’re expected to” when traveling, I wondered if I was being insincere and bougie. I did take dozens of pictures and I did post them on social media and that adventure did cost about six times what an average Thai worker makes in a day (I spent less than $60 USD, which included transportation from my hotel). But my real motivation was interaction with these animals in safe & ethical ways; I researched facilities and chose the Wildlife Friends Foundation, a proper sanctuary - they are owned, organized, and run by people with the education & credentials (including Thai locals) to take good care of the animals living there. They prioritize the comfort and safety of the creatures over profits they could gain through unethical tourism. Our group size was limited, most of the animals were comfortably behind fences or inside enclosures, and we were instructed before, during, and after how to behave around them (no feeding, no poking or prodding, no shouting, and in the case of the gibbon who hated women, no direct eye contact; she screamed at us anyway). I loved every second of this day despite it being filled with things I normally would not enjoy: mind-numbing heat & humidity; dust or mud or some kind of poop on every path; lots of walking; a handful of warm elephant saliva; roaming chickens & dogs underfoot; an angry, shrieking ape; a skin-soaking 45-minute afternoon downpour. This is the epitome of Travel for me - finding something new, engaging, beautiful in ways nothing else can be because it isn’t in that particular place & time - but travel can also be a day trip to the Oregon coast or a weekend in a tiny trailer on Mt. Adams or a visit to my hometown for the 4th of July. The point, for me, is to keep my eyes + mind open and enjoy the ride, wherever I am and wherever I go. In the words of Mary Oliver, from her poem “Sometimes” ~
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.
So much this. I genuinely believe that travel helps broaden one's mindset and more people should do it. It doesn't have to be Big Travel, but I think everyone would benefit from a change of scenery and viewpoint.
Glad I wasn't with you when you were screaming at the radio because I would have been, too. I have to interject about you comment regarding being "Intentional". I think that is a very key point for me. You and I have traveled a fair amount together, so we have shared a lot of that experience. But the trip Adam and I took (with Liz and Madalyn) to Vietnam and Cambodia was actually life changing for me. We researched both countries and learned a lot about what to expect months before we departed. During our research we learned that the poverty in Cambodia is incredibly overwhelming to a lot of Americans if they aren't prepared for it. We not only prepared ourselves for it (it was still very alarming), but we made efforts to give back to the country that hosted us so very kindly. Originally, we planned on making a purchase of several pigs that would feed multiple families for months. Sadly, that charity was not available to us once we arrived, so we altered that plan and made a $650 cash donation to Children's Hospital in Siem Reap. While that doesn't sound like a lot of money to us, the average daily household income at that time was $5 per day. We were honored with such gratitude for our donation (they actually offered us a tour of the hospital, which we politely and graciously declined), and it was heartwarming. That trip was definitely life altering for us. But we were intentional in our efforts. We didn't feel entitled by making that donation. We certainly didn't feel we were owed anything for it. Quite the opposite. We felt we owed it to the people of the country we were visiting to honor them in whatever way we could. And we didn't do it out of expectation either. I learned more on that trip about myself than any other I have been on, and I can absolutely say I am a much better person because of it. Get out of your houses and go see the world people! You never know what you might learn.
Let's travel together again soon, please.