Travelling can be for Amusement and Self-Discovery
A discussion board comment by Sean Marie Prythyll A. Patnubay | February 25, 2022
What I found misguided in Emerson’s points in “Self-Reliance” was the discussion on travelling. While he concedes that travelling for art, study, and benevolence were reasonable, he found those who travel to be amused or to find something that s/he is lacking unreasonable and points out that they in fact, travel away from one’s self.
As a scout, who advocates for learning by doing and informal education in the outdoors, I stand by the words of our founder, Lord Baden-Powell that a week of camp is equivalent to six months of theoretical teaching. When we go on camps, we are there to be both amused and to find something that we do not carry.
As Emerson argues that travelling has much in common with imitation and “imitation is suicide”, I beg to disagree. Whenever I travel, I find myself in the various nooks and crannies of strangers like me. I build my own foundation based on the experiences I gain from interacting with others. I steal styles every now and then from best practices of the people I meet and the places I go to and if this is imitation, then charge me with intellectual suicide because it has formed the woman that I am today and I am all the better for it. If I simply rely on myself, I will not grow as an individual. If I do not use the external pressures of life, how is my life different from that of a salted fish?
In the recent years, we have had two major health crises that we need to address — both in relation to Emerson’s points on travelling. First, in terms of mental health, a change of environment is most welcome to those plagued in mind and heart. Those with conditions at times find that travelling to be amused and to find something not present within them is a viable solution and/or option. Second, Emerson argues that “Our minds travel when our bodies are forced to stay at home”. I have been staying at home during this pandemic. We are at Year 3 now: I’ve experienced silent waterfronts, needed alarms to move, and required the process of buzzer beating deadlines in order to feel something. This has been the effect of physical and social distancing on my person.
So, no, Mr. Emerson, I completely disagree that the soul is no traveller. It is not necessities, duties, on any occasion that would spur me from travelling because it is as ordinary as breathing for me and here I am, holding my breath, sometimes unable to breathe for the past three years because while I have yet to travel again, it appears that I am lost now that I am stuck at home.
