When asked where he came from, Socrates answered, not ‘From Athens’ but ‘From the World.’ The art of travel by Alain de Botton is a wittily crafted book drawing on the theories and bons mots of writers, explorers, philosophers, and artists. De Botton illustrated the two types of travelers those that see the world with awe and wonder, those who travel to expand their perspectives of the world, and those who pay keen attention to details, details our world has to offer, be it nature, animals, scenery, architecture, how the sun sets and rises in different places of the world – the marvelous beauty of our planet and all its organisms. Those who ask vigorously, questions motivated by being in search of an authentic representation of experiences.
On the other hand, there are pessimistic types of travelers – those from the pessimistic school who only see disappointments in every reality or experience. No better explanation of the pessimistic traveler than in J. K. Huysman’s novel A Rebours, published in 1884, who effete and misanthropic hero, was non-other than the aristocratic Duc des Esseintes, who is no doubt an honorary patron of the pessimistic school of travel. The type that even in the most fascinating cities, have occasionally been visited by a strong wish to remain in bed and take the next flight home.
The art of travel is a perfect guide to intelligent travel. Where we go, de Botton argues convincingly is far less important than an awareness of why we are on the move at all. “At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves – that is brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.” Part of growing up, and learning to travel well, means daring to take our own interests a bit more seriously. Attuning to the needs of our inner self, travel to places that would fundamentally reorient our personality. Essentially plan journeys that could assist us with our inner journeys.
In habit, the final chapter, de Botton argued that “our responses to the world are crucially molded by the company we keep, for we temper our curiosity to fit with the expectations of others.” This is triggered by not having a mind of our own and there is no one to blame for that but ourselves.
In his chapter on traveling places, de Botton explores an inevitable part of traveling that most people dislike: the journey that gets us to our destination. “If we find poetry in the service station and motel, if we are drawn to the airport or train carriage, it is perhaps because, in spite of their architectural compromises and discomforts, in spite of their garish colors and harsh lighting, we implicitly feel that these isolated places offer us a material setting for an alternative to the selfish ease, the habits, and confinement of the ordinary, rooted world.”
It is only a few months ago that due to Covid-19 we were all in collective confinement wondering if we will be able to travel again. Oh how soon we forget. Instead of coming back from our journeys with the parts, we did not enjoy, “we might return from our journeys with a collection of small, unfettered but life-changing thoughts.” Our lives are transient, we might as well live a little and with some gratitude.
Trailblazer Travelz,
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