300 years ago, British philosopher John Locke defined “travel” as finishing of education. He thought teenagers traveling and seeing the world with their parents were important for learning different customs and cultures. In contrast, French Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau said “travel” is nonsense. He said traveling at an early stage would only bring degrading influences to youths, and the very rare occasions they wouldn’t is only if one has a strong, innocent spirit.
Traveling.
Long time ago, “travel” was far from recreation. Travel used to mean “training” – an opportunity to prove how discipline your spirit has cultivated. Trying to prove your inherent behaviors in new places. How to say “hello.” How to shake hands. The limits of jokes. The ambiguity of taste. Those were the purposes of the classic “travel” – to objectively analyze yourself through life experiences in new places.
As more people started working in the society, “travel” came to acquire a new purpose – “recreation.” To put yourself in a scenic place and once in a while forget daily life. The further you are from daily life, the more uplifting your “travel” becomes. That is the reason why we allow ourselves to put in so much budget and time and keep setting off to new places, still knowing somewhere in our mind that we will come back. |
