We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot — “Little Gidding” (the last of his Four Quartets)
Why do I travel? Why do you travel?
Others have said it so much better than I. Here is an article I stumbled on by chance from a July issue of the The Opinion Pages of the New York Times.
Reclaiming Travel
By ILAN STAVANS and JOSHUA ELLISON
What compels us to leave home, to travel to other places? The great travel writer Bruce Chatwin described nomadism as an “inveterate impulse,” deeply rooted in our species. The relentless movement of the modern world bears this out: our relative prosperity has not turned us into a sedentary species. The World Tourism Organization, an agency of the United Nations, reported nearly a billion tourist arrivals in 2011. Some 200 million people are now living outside their country of birth. Read more.
Please feel free to offer your reflections on why you do (or don’t) choose to pack a bag and leave home.
