Deep travel
Now that we're home we have a lot of sorting ahead of us. Not only do we need to arrange all our stuff back into our house (in August, when we can get back into our house), but we also have to do some mental rearranging as we figure out where to go from here. I'm thinking that I might bring this blog, which is focused on a "hapless husband living overseas", to a close rather than try and repackage it. I'll probably end it once we get settled and have finished with the repercussions of the venture. (Whether I attempt to start another blog or not will depend on how life goes.) But for now I'm still committed to documenting the end of our China venture as well as posting a few flashbacks that I never got around to writing up.Today's post falls in the latter category. Our train ride to Maoming afforded a lot of writing time and I filled up many pages in my steno book. Most of it is not worth posting online at this late date, but there was one bit of musing I did want to share:
I had a thought last night about traveling. It seems to me that one has a choice when traveling. (Assuming one can afford choices, that is.) One can travel quickly or slowly. You can take a plane or a train across country, a taxi or a bus across town. For the right fee you can spend less time traveling and more time at your destination.
But I think there is another dimension to travel. Slow travel also lets one travel more deeply. For example, our trip to Kunming takes 35 minutes by plane or 12 hours by bus. That's over eleven hours that I could be spending at home or in Kunming. But it's also eleven hours I could be spending in contemplation, discussion or just watching the scenery go by. (I can't spend it reading because reading on the bus gives me a headache.) Even when I'm just looking out the window, I get a much greater feel for the countryside through which I'm passing. I can slowly note the contours of the land, watch the people going on with their daily lives and simply ruminate over the panorama passing before me.
In part, our China venture is another example of traveling deeply. We're visitors here, not immigrants, but we've signed on for the long tour--two years rather than two weeks. I've gotten plenty of pictures and plenty of stories out of the trip. But I've also received the experience of living in a place that's beyond my ability to describe. It'll be interesting to see how these past two years will fit into my life.
Of course, when you think about it, life is the longest and deepest journey of all....
posted by John @ 2:18 PM
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