I’ve been thinking about travel recently... probably due to future decisions but also from various things I’ve read in the last few weeks on blogs/in books:Chesterton: “He who travels to be amused, or to get somewhat which he does not carry, travels away from himself, and grows old even in youth among old things... Travelling is a fool's paradise.”
Emerson: “Our first journeys discover to us the indifference of places. At home I dream that at Naples, at Rome, I can be intoxicated with beauty, and lose my sadness. I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea, and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from... But the rage of travelling is a symptom of a deeper unsoundness affecting the whole intellectual action. The intellect is vagabond, and our system of education fosters restlessness. Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home.”
Andrew Sullivan (who quoted the guys above) puts it this way: “Seeking new superficialities at the expense of familiar depths is a neurosis, not an adventure.”
While I understand where these writers are coming from, reading these quotes just goes against everything I thought growing up. Travel is sort of in my blood and my philosophy is usually with Augustine who said: “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” I have treasured the opportunity to live overseas and travel some... but I think especially in the first few years I was back in Northern Ireland, I had a sense that people who had never been out of Northern Ireland could never begin to understand me or the world; looking back it probably was me that was being narrow-minded by putting people in boxes. I’ve come to realise it’s more about whether people think about the world/things outside themselves rather than whether or not they’ve travelled. And to be honest, short-term teams and sun holidays often do little to broaden horizons – (although seemingly living somewhere else can make an impact on creativity).
Then I read this yesterday:
“I’m sure that some people serve the Lord well as they buzz around the world for six months at a time. And I’m sure some young folks are making a difference for Christ as they float from job to job and place to place. But I’m equally certain that many of these same individuals are actually making self-centred decisions in the name of experience, cultural diversity, and sometimes, I hate to say it, under the guise of short-term missions.... My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is, “How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?” I wonder if the abundance of opportunities to explore today is doing less to help make well-rounded disciples of Christ and more to help Christians avoid long-term responsibility and have less long-term impact.”
P36 Just do something, Kevin DeYoung
Anyway, food for thought. Don’t think the itchy feet will ever go away but just trying to make a case to myself for the other side of the argument...
