The simple art of travel
I am sitting writing this at Auckland airport. The loudspeaker is calling for some unpronounceable names that are ‘keeping others waiting and the unload procedure is underway’. – That is such a passive aggressive statement - trying to use other 'passengers’ anger to move you along.
Most of the people you see at the airport are slightly stressed. Mothers with babies, teenagers walking around in a confused state, older people in that same airport ‘Where am I supposed to be?’ fog. People are wandering around in 'comfortable clothes', actually some look like their PJs. There are people with cushions wound around their neck and others already sleeping on the floor.
I have already picked up a passport and boarding pass and handed it to the barman – yep it’s 10.45 am and I am having a beer. It's a bit like; if you are at the airport, all those standard rules go out the window. That is what travel does and we are not even out of the airport yet!
Travel opens up so many doors, apart from just the bar. No one knows me here, no one can judge me for having a beer at 10.45am, or that the lady next to me is in her pyjamas with eye covers on her head and a mickey mouse pillow. It seems that once people are on the road to somewhere all those conventions that hold us back seem to go out of the window and the simple process of travel to anywhere creates a feeling of freedom, from rules, from convention, from really caring what others think.
Travel builds us; whereas normal life can shrink us, we can’t do this, we can't do that because of the judgement of others. We are too concerned to step outside of ourselves and challenge ourselves. The process of travel is the ability to challenge yourself, making movement, creating fun, finding new things, you don't know what is around the next corner, what's behind the next door, it is all a surprise. When you travel, the unexpected is an everyday occurrence. When you are not travelling, you can guess what you will be doing at 10.30am (probably not having a beer) at 1.30.pm and at 4pm. That's why repeatedly travelling to the same place is not as beneficial as going somewhere new. You don't want to make your travel experience a repetition of being at home, or you lose some of the value.
Travel is about expansion, expansion of your knowledge, your culture, your experiences, but most of all it is about developing a better you.
This is our travel issue – enjoy! Steve Dickinson - Editor