Travel to live more than one life

I once met a woman who asked me why I travel so much. But before I could answer she told me her opinion instead. ‘I don’t know why people make all that effort to travel…’ she said, ‘…when you can watch it all on TV.’

I stared at her, flabbergasted. Surely she wasn’t serious. But the blank look on her face said she was. She had never left her small town in the north east of England, she told me. She had no reason to.

‘But, but, but…’ I stammered … but I didn’t really know how to respond back then.

Over the years I’ve though hard on the subject. Yes you could sit on your couch and watch someone else journeying from one place to another, or see them sitting on a tropical beach, or wandering through a far away city, but you’d not only miss out on a range of vivid memories, you have missed out on experienced being in a new place, far from home, right now.

When watching television you are are living in one dimension. You are focused on what someone else wants you to focus on. At it’s simplest, there’s not even the chance to feel the breeze flicking over your arms and legs, or to smell the tangy, exotic perfume of hot sun on your skin, or to concentrate on a snowflake melting on your forehead. You miss out on all the small things, like the faint clanging of church bells in the distance, the squeals of children playing in the cobbled square, or a chorus of dogs barking at each other from right to left as the sun goes down. By staring at a screen you are overlooking the reality of the scent of something local cooking on a stove, the wine lingering in your mouth, the feeling of your toes digging into the sand. None of these things might be particularly exotic in themselves, but they tell you where you are, and who you are, and that you are vital and alive, and living more than just the one life you would be at home. You can’t get that from staying in and watching television.

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