Someone asked me why I named the places I wished to visit....
A rich life is one full of experiences. It is a great tragedy that our short life is full of mundane activities that basically keep us trapped inside psychological cages and cubicles. It is needed for structure and finance, but it is sad in a real way. The world is a vast place full of history, culture, and phenomena that I want to see. I love to travel because of this. To learn, to walk the footpaths of the thousands of people before me. To see places that at one point in time were thought to be the only places in existence. To see places where folklore was born. To taste the recipes of a lost generation.... to share knowledge, to gain knowledge, to see the sky from another land..... one world-one life.
I want to go to the Black Forest. If it is permissible to camp, I want to camp there. Why see it for 15 minutes, when I can sleep there.? When I can be a traveler who uses the forest as refuge while planet Earth sleeps? To think about tales of witches and Grimms being born from the sounds and sights experienced in that forest. To breathe the air that has been recycled in the lungs of people from 2oo years ago... I want to stare into an orange flame that dances in the majesty of old trees in a place cloaked in mystery and myth. Teach me your ways old forest....
I want to go to Stonehenge and feel its magic. I want to see the highlands and have a picnic. I want to crawl on the grass like a child and see the vast world that lives under the feet of the hobbits. What does dirt feel like? Dirt so fertile and alive ; what dirt could create such a beautiful landscape? How happy the bugs must be to live there. The butterflies must dance like fairies- casting winged shadows on dew soaked green. I will be their dancer. My heart will burst with song and energy just from being there.
Let us not forget the vast hills and castles of Ireland. The old trees. The green hills rolling for miles. A land that has recently suffered war, famine, bankruptcy, but bounced back. A land where elves and dwarfs play. Why wouldn't I carry my pint to the nearest lake and dance to fiddles in the moonlight? Who would I ever want to miss such an opportunity?
Japan? A bustling city full of robot technologies that will surely take us over one day, yet so set in ancestry and family tradition that honor becomes a core value among men. Yet, so many distractions taking away from this value. A city full of lights and chaos bordered by the temples of the old. such a dichotomy. A world where old and new merge...where two are one, much like the minds and hearts of humanity...that constant battle....that constant search for balance... the yin and the yang.....Masters of discipline and mountains of glory. When the cherry blossoms rain crimson on my head, and I run through the branches dodging them like a gauntlet obstacle course, I will fell free and wild like a creature born into nature- Like what we were all meant to be.
The sands of Utah’s National Park build beautiful structures full of tans and yellows matched against the blue sky- it makes for a western feel. A cross between the old west and a dune of the Middle East. To be hit in the face with abrasive winds until my eyes water would be a privilege given the circumstance. I would love to make sand angels in my footsteps.
The redwood forest has trees older than the bible, taller than buildings, and stronger than most people’s virtue. to touch one would be better than meeting 1,000 vapid hipster “activists”.
To revel in this world whose existence allows my own is true freedom. I want to experience mother earth. I want to love her. I want to see her. to talk about her. to spread her word. So many peoples. So many ruins. So many landscapes. Such a diverse planet on all scales and spectrum.
If only life weren't taxed out of us. If being a drone had a bigger reward than material things and security from the streets. If what we considered home wasn't just a tiny fragment of space on a tiny concrete slab….
This whole world is my home. Our home. And we only get one life to play house.