There is no truer statement than "traveling is a fool's paradise". Many people enjoy the luxury of traveling. They think that a long vacation can solve any and all of their problems, but we all know that’s not true. You cannot run away from what troubles you. It will follow you where ever you go. Wouldn’t that be perfect if you could just run away from your problems for 2 weeks, and spend your days on a sunny beach, run your fingers through the silky sand, and come back with everything perfect again. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t love that. I have found myself many a time thinking that if I could just go somewhere else things would be different, too bad that’s not true. To be honest running away from your problems only makes them worse. Sure you get 2 weeks to sleep, relax, enjoy a spa treatment, maybe do a little shopping on the side, but at the end of those 2 weeks you have to go back to your normal life. You can’t live in your vacation forever, otherwise you’d end up bored and broke. Even though plenty of us think about getting away from it all, only a fool would actually take that idea to heart.
The idea of escaping your issues through travel is along the same lines as running away from home when your little. You get upset about something and think that there is only one way to solve things… you pack up your little bag of stuff and walk about half way down the street, only to realize you miss your parents. When you travel to get away from your problems you may pack a little more than a small bag and a stuffed animal, but when you get to your destination you end up running back home and loving all the things you hated 5 seconds ago. True that traveling is for fools, but even a fool can redeem himself on travels. There is something awfully wonderful about traveling. I simple cannot sit here and point out that those who use travel to get away remain fools the entire trip. An intelligent fool (now there’s and oxymoron) learns from this. When you travel you do have a chance to learn more about yourself in a different setting than you normally live in. I think that there is a big part of traveling that helps us appreciate what we really have. For instance when I went to Paris, I was so excited to be there. I mean come on it’s the fashion capital of the world, and I was happy to get away from the California Casual, constant fast food, and just the same old thing. However, after a month in Paris, I found myself missing everything in San Diego. I missed the amazing Mexican food, I missed my best friends, I missed the occasional ability to still be seen as socially acceptable in a pair of dare I say it…sweat pants (the Parisians would never dream of wearing those). When I returned to San Diego and one of my best friends met me at the airport I was so happy to see him. By missing all of these things when I came back that friendship was better than ever, and Mexican food tasted amazing, and even the occasional pair of sweat pants made me smile. I think that though Emerson is correct in saying “traveling is for fools”, but I think that even when you go away for the wrong reasons you can come back for all the right ones.
5 comments:
Hey Lee,
I really like your response to "traveling is a fool's paradise" because traveling does not solve your problems. It serves as a temporary escape that always comes back to bite you. Traveling only prolongs and makes your problems worse: the problems you are running from are problems within yourself, which you can never escape. The problems that you have will only repeat themselves in the new place you have run to! If you are really self-reliant you will stay and find out how you yourself will respond to the conflicts you want to run from. Your home is where you have love, friendship, and family. You need to stay to find out how you will handle the situation with loving people around to support you and your decision. Traveling is for fools because they are being tricked into believing that all their problems will just vanish...but when they come back they will just be way worse. Or if they do not come back those problems will just stay with them to haunt them because they never resolved the situation. Therefore, although trips to paradise are nice and relaxing, your problems cannot just vanish.
Ok Lee first off I have a problem with this
"I found myself missing everything in San Diego. I missed the amazing Mexican food, I missed my best friends."
EXCUSE ME!!! I was WITH you and I AM one of your best friends... so I guess you missed your other ones. Haha ok anyways I loved your post. You brought up some really good points. Sometimes people think that traveling is magical and will solve all your problems. WRONG. That never happens. They only way to truly escape them would be to move. Traveling is like temporarily moving but it is not permanent. Even moving can't solve all your problems. I loved how you brought up how every kid wants to run away at some point of their childhood. But then they realize that you need friends and family to get through your problems. There is nothing like friendship and support. Sometimes when you are in a conflict you can't think clearly and thats where friends come in to tell you what you do and when you're acting stupid. Traveling is certainly not a problem solver but like you said it can give you new perspective. It can also just provide a necessary break from a chaotic situation.
Lee you are so wise.
I thought that this was a really interesting quote from Emerson, because, like you, I enjoy traveling. I was at first offended by it, thinking like you that traveling actually teaches you a lot about yourself and gives you perspective on the situations at hand by experiencing different lifestyles and getting other opinions. While all this is true, I think that its not the point which Emerson is trying to make. Sure, traveling is great and all, but when the sole purpose is to run away from your problems, it doesn't work out too well, (for me at least). Recently I wasn't feelin too good- I'd had a pretty bad week and realized some things that were kind of making me question a lot of things about the way that I live and the things I take for granted. I was struck with an overwhelming desire to hit the road. Honestly my brother is always thinking of ways to lure me up to L.A. for a visit, and I always have so many commitments that I am unfortunately unable. As soon as everything hit the fan, i didn't care a bit about those commitments. I was ready to drop everything and run. It turned out that when I talked to him about it, he actually wouldn't LET me come. which shocked me, cause he's a lonely old man(when his gf is out of town) always lookin for company. But he had good reason. We talked it out over the phone(tisk tisk says emerson, but hes family not a friend so its allowed) and he pretty much talked me down from the bridge that was the san diego train station where i wanted to commit social suicide in the form of running away. (ok its a stretch of an analogy but oh well) Basically what i'm gettin at is that in all of his unexpected wise-ness, he made me realize that it wouldn't make things better. The only way to handle it was to face it. Once I did, I could breathe again.
Lee, you would write an essay about shopping. I definitely liked reading it, and agreed with basically everything you said (might be a little off coming from a guys perspective you know?) I have for sure tried to escape problems by going away and no that did not work. I loved how open and honest you were in your blog, and having that realistic sense made it more enjoyable to read. I bet Paris was fun for you, but I know you were missing me the whole time and couldn't wait to come back to see me right? Yeah. Good job writing your blog!
When I first heard this Emerson quote, to me it seemed very negative, even nihilistic. Of course it is foolish to think you can run away from deep seated problems in your life. Travel can be so, so much more than that. For those of us who love to travel for the RIGHT reasons, the Emerson quote is irrelevant. If you take the Emerson quote at face value, you would be better off staying in your home town your entire life. To me, THAT is the fool's paradise!
Post a Comment