I’m reading a book called The Piano Tuner and it’s captivating. It contains an excerpt from the poem Ulysses:
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known—cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honor’d of them all,…
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro’
Gleams that untravel’d world whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
This quote captures a little aspect of why I love to travel. The more of this place I see, the more other places I want to see as well. One of my few life goals (I’m generally content to just go with what comes up rather than set up expectations for the future by setting goals) is to visit all seven continents. I have three left: South America, Antarctica, and Asia (if you count New Zealand as part of the Australian continent). Of the three, Asia is the one I’ve been least interested in visiting, so have had no idea where specifically to go. Lately, though, I’ve been considering Goa, India or Myanmar. Goa is emerging as a tourist destination and looks beautiful, and I’ve read two books now about Myanmar and am a little intrigued. I would love to see Mt Everest as well, so I guess I have some options. And plenty of time to decide, since funding these trips will take a little planning. Or I could just take Samantha Brown’s job and start a “Passport to Asia” series…
Also, I found a 20 shilling coin on the ground yesterday. A PC friend had just blogged about a time he found $5 on the ground back in the US, so I mentioned it when I talked to him later that day, and he said it was pretty much the same. While it’s not exactly, I started thinking about its purchasing power. Here in my town, 20 shillings will get me any of the following:
A roll of toilet paper
A cup of chai or an order of fries at a local restaurant
A large mango
2 ½ minutes on my cell or 7 text messages
A week’s supply of tomatoes
2 eggs
About 4 cups of fresh milk
A small bottle of nail polish
What’s odd about that is that in the US these things are not the same price. Just another reminder of how different it is here!
2 comments:
love the poem and thought it was about you...you have the 'wanderlust' and the youth to do something about it..I used to dream of far away places with strange sounding names (quote from a song) and would have loved to have been brave enough to go...it was before the world was so dangerous..and expensive..but now...oh my dear..prepare for the dream coming to pass. Love you, Jean
Well, like I mentioned before, you come by that wanderlust naturally. (apple didn't fall far from the tree, kind of thing). I just never had the awareness that I could actually do it. There's a line in Sweet Home Alabama when Jake is talking to Melanie. "You can have roots and wings at the same time". Good for you, and with God's grace you'll make it to all those places you dream about.
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