In writing the last post, I ended up re-reading the conclusion of Walden. As much as I love traveling, I have lost the yearning for an exotic escape to save me from the stress of the workaday world (I escape much more consistently and regularly -- and these trust holidays could be a good start for mental-health vacations).
This quote by Thoreau reminded me of the hunter of illusions, the spiritual warrior, that Miguel Ruiz refers to. (Great new book alert: Voices of Knowledge: A Practical Guide to Inner Peace .)
To the sick the doctors wisely recommend change of air and scenery. Thank Heaven, here is not all the world...If you are chosen town clerk, forsooth, you cannot go to Tierra del Fuego (1) this summer: but you may go to the land of infernal fire nevertheless. The universe is wider than our views of it.Our voyaging is only great-circle sailing, and the doctors prescribe for diseases of the skin merely. One hastens to southern Africa to chase the giraffe; but surely that is not the game he would be after. How long, pray, would a man hunt giraffes if he could? Snipes and woodcocks also may afford rare sport; but I trust it would be nobler game to shoot one's self.—
"Direct your eye right inward, and you'll find
A thousand regions in your mind
Yet undiscovered. Travel them, and be
Expert in home-cosmography."What does Africa—what does the West stand for? Is not our own interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast, when discovered.
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden, http://eserver.org/thoreau/walden18.html
Comments