It hit me full force on a recent Sunday evening watching the
epic HBO show Game of Thrones. The gorgeous scenery and castles along
the Irish coastline, depicted on screen, were places I had visited only weeks
before. I felt like I was closer to the
story and characters than at any time in the previous ten years, time spent
reading the original George R.R. Martin
Fire & Ice novels and following the Thrones
drama on television.
What is it about travel that captivates us? Why do we put up with all the inconveniences
of leaving home to spend a brief portion of our lives with foreign people
places and things up close? What part of the human condition is satisfied by
wanderlust when books and documentaries could easily instruct on the faraway
places that most interest us?
The word travel
and its etymological twin, travail both
originate from the name of an ancient Roman instrument of torture. When one considers the nasty, brutish and
long hardships endured by early travelers this derivation makes sense. During the Middle Ages there was no leisure
travel but still a great deal of movement to foreign lands among diplomats,
merchants, soldiers and religious pilgrims.
While difficult and dangerous Medieval travel came with a
purpose, the subject of travel fascinated those who could dream and read. The most celebrated poems of the age were
travel narratives. First among equals, Homer
provided the greatest travel epic in recorded history with the Iliad and the Odyssey. Next was Chaucer’s baldy trek from London to
Canterbury, The Canterbury Tales. There was
also the written works of Marco Polo, penned with the help of Rusticello da
Pisa, a composer of romances, who no doubt embellished the tale of journeys to
the court of Kublai Khan. Many other journals, diaries and written
accounts whetted the travel appetite of young Noblemen and Clerics for travel
into the unknown.
It is awe inspiring to consider the results of travel
through history. From the great warriors: Alexander the Great, the Vikings; to
the explorers: Columbus, Magellan; to our own colonial diplomat Benjamin
Franklin’s twelve trans-Atlantic voyages; to the scientist, Charles Darwin
aboard the H.M.S. Beagle; and to the great twentieth century authors: Hemingway,
F. Scot Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein together in Paris. What inspired each to start their individual
trek? What did each take back in return
to influence or enrich our culture?
Things changed with the evolution of the train and the great
steamships. Travel became a leisure
pursuit and pastime of the wealthy. The
hotels, museums and beach resorts of Europe were eager for American
dollars. The trip abroad became a
honeymoon or summer vacation status symbol.
Americans without means to travel were enthralled with the travel
experience of others. It was no accident
that Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad, published
in 1869, a humorous account of his cruise through Europe and the Holy Land, was
his bestselling book during his lifetime.
Once air travel became readily available and less expensive,
all of us could satisfy the urge to expand our firsthand knowledge of the
world. Now, each year brings new
“hot-spots” to challenge us. There is little that cannot be explored by
climbing, diving, skiing or simply walking down the paths of history.
From personal experience travel has enriched my journey
through life in ways I could not have predicted. I continue to dream of the African Serengeti
and to envision all the diverse wildlife as if from another world. After walking through and considering the
Minoan Palace of Knossos on the Island of Crete, classical Greek culture seemed
a mere building block and not the foundation of Western Civilization. Observing where Caravaggio, Michelangelo,
Monet and Picasso lived and worked, brought new meaning to their art. Experiencing firsthand the old City of
Jerusalem and the Tower of London produced immense awe that so much history
could occur in such small places. Not to mention the Holy spirits in the former
and ghosts in the latter.
Each week an article I read, a blurb on television or a
comment from another will spur a memory in my mind’s eye from these and other
travels. Dots are connected and the
world becomes easier to understand. Political discontent in the Middle East, an
attempted coup in Turkey and Scottish attempts to secede from Britain are no
longer empty words in the newspaper. The
events are associated with real people in real places.
The psychology of travel and the traveler has become a topic
worthy of research. Experts have determined that for many, there is an
intimidation factor to conquer before the tickets are purchased. Fear of flying, foreign crowds, terrorism and
losing a passport are enough to keep many within their safety zone. On the other hand, those that dare to venture
to exotic locations find a new purpose, broaden their horizons, learn to cope
with uncertainty and often make new friends.
I always return from a trip, grateful to be home, but refreshed beyond
compare.
Of course travel is a two-way street and what is mundane for
us is often an adventure for travelers visiting our community. I could not help
noticing the Observer Reporter article on German Fulbright scholars visiting
W&J college in August. One student
observed: “It is very interesting how people are living here in this little
town with this huge campus.” These
students will always remember the Frank Lloyd Wright 150-year commemorative
with their visit to Fallingwater or Steeler football and the founding of
Pittsburgh with their time spent at the Heinz History Museum. Western Pennsylvania may not have castles but
we have a great deal to share with the world.
Whether coming or going, travel provides a reset on our
place in the scheme of human existence.
While the language, culture, architecture, and culinary habits may
differ from place to place, travel confirms the universal truth, that we all
share similar values, hopes and fears no matter what address we call home.
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