I first shared this over four years ago, but I think it’s worth posting again. I saw someone reference it today on Facebook, and had to go back and read that post, and was in as much amazement having read it the hundredth time as I was when I read it for the first time.
I read every comment posted on this blog, and sometimes they just leave me speechless. That applies in both a good and bad way.
Take this comment, for example (thanks to Google, I seem to be an authority on moving to Bellevue, WA):
I found this page and it may be a bit old, but I was thinking of moving from San Diego, CA to Kirkland, WA. I have a friend up there who is willing to let me live with him for $200 a month (i don’t have to worry about rent until i get myself stable enough to pay rent). How much would you recommend me saving up before moving.
But then there are some actually profound comments that I read over and over again, and I can’t help but just think “wow, that’s deep.”
Being able to see the world is great, though I think many people can relate to some feeling of loneliness that arises from it. Years ago reader DJ left the following comment on a post, which just sums up that emotion so beautifully:
An old vagabond in his 60s told me about it over a beer in Central America, goes something like this: The more places you see, the more things you see that appeal to you, but no one place has them all. In fact, each place has a smaller and smaller percentage of the things you love, the more things you see. It drives you, even subconsciously, to keep looking, for a place not that’s perfect (we all know there’s no Shangri-La), but just for a place that’s “just right for you.” But the curse is that the odds of finding “just right” get smaller, not larger, the more you experience. So you keep looking even more, but it always gets worse the more you see. This is Part A of the Curse.
Part B is relationships. The more you travel, the more numerous and profoundly varied the relationships you will have. But the more people you meet, the more diffused your time is with any of them. Since all these people can’t travel with you, it becomes more and more difficult to cultivate long term relationships the more you travel. Yet you keep traveling, and keep meeting amazing people, so it feels fulfilling, but eventually, you miss them all, and many have all but forgotten who you are. And then you make up for it by staying put somewhere long enough to develop roots and cultivate stronger relationships, but these people will never know what you know or see what you’ve seen, and you will always feel a tinge of loneliness, and you will want to tell your stories just a little bit more than they will want to hear them. The reason this is part of the Curse is that it gets worse the more you travel, yet travel seems to be a cure for a while.
None of this is to suggest that one should ever reduce travel. It’s just a warning to young Travelers, to expect, as part of the price, a rich life tinged with a bit of sadness and loneliness, and angst that’s like the same nostalgia everyone feels for special parts of their past, except multiplied by a thousand.
While I’m sure this applies to us all in different ways, there’s no denying that it’s incredibly profound. Thanks for sharing, DJ!
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