Eat. Pray. Love. These are the words which encapsulates the very essence of travelling – a quintessential token of what a human soul craves. Or at least to Hollywood, it is. Despite the reality of holidaying being a privileged luxury unaffordable for a thorough majority on this planet, the concept has a good little kick to it. It is an immaculate expression of freedom and liberation, paving the path towards self-healing and self-discovery.
Unveiling our raw selves, peeling off our cracked masks marred by the colossal weight of disingenuous societal expectations. Our existence in a country full of strangers opens the doors to embrace our true selves; be who we are and do whatever we wish to do. For there is truth behind the phrase ‘travelling makes or breaks relationships’.
Many argue against travel holidays as a recent capitalist phenomenon aiming to maximize economies, classified as another one of endless unnecessary human wants – like a Birkin bag or the Apple Vision Pro. One such claim is found inside the many chapters of the book Sapiens, written by renowned anthropology expert and author Yuval Noah Harari. To further elucidate on his theory of an imagined order, he exploits the idea of travelling as an example of one such consequence of sustaining in a society buttressed by an imagined order. In brief, an imagined order is the postulation that human civilization, which exists very differently from other animals, were built upon a shared belief system of imaginary set of rules set in stone for people to abide by. At its core, such an order was deliberately nurtured by leaders of communities to promote coherence and harmony within colossal groups of people with diverging thoughts and interests.
In Harari’s piece, he draws inferences on how the deceptive ‘thirst’ for travel is fallaciously instilled into our daily lives as a human need, as part of the imagined order scheme. To him, is a selling of a paradise away from home, far from adherence to daunting societal forces. It takes one’s mind away from the boiling pot of callous repetition their lives offer, stirring the chaos which may occur out of boredom and cynicism. Leaving the country provides the fresh outlook of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in juggling life problems, contributing to the very peace expected to be maintained in an imagined order. In a place where you are a nobody, nothing matters. One becomes lost in the epiphany that life is not that serious, deprived of the need to be agonizingly hopeful of a future which remains volatile despite the frivolous efforts to control it, all the while rotting on a desk during your 8-hour work shift (and the unpaid overtime). Travel, for many workers, is salvation, a costly decision pushed by the propagators of the imagined order.
Travelling stitches laces of humanistic elements into the purchases made during the process. The sheer exorbitance pushing our wallets to wail is hidden underneath our jubilation of ‘feeling free’. Although, a peek into recent itineraries discloses the sham of today’s travels. Do we honestly have to waste our pockets away on flight tickets and hotels, perhaps even visas to feel a morsel of happiness? Or perhaps be risking our lives camping in the woods or treking treacherous mountains, because of the ostensible guarantee of self-discovery? The core question is, was Julia Roberts truly insane to have spent her life savings on travelling three different countries under the pursuit of internal tranquillity?
Well, historically, the culture of voyaging is more intrinsic to our being than most acknowledge. Seeking new adventures is part of our human experience, quenching our innate inquisitive need to learn our world beyond what we see, hear, and feel. We arrived in this world with the instinct to explore our surroundings to scavenge for food and shelter. Our survival throughout our journey here has been necessitated by travelling. It is an embedded way of life transcending across generations. Our ancestors were the Hunter-Gatherers, Vikings, Merchants, Bedouins, and curious Explorers (colonizers today). Our present sedentary setting is unnatural. Our physiological abilities of movement and our psychological inclinations of curiosity buttresses our need to spend our lifetimes in endless voyages. The imagined order only desecrates these quests with the demand for pockets to be fuller than our desire to explore.
With travel, the people of land-locked cities revel in the salty breeze of the oceans, the flat-landers meet the mighty mountains, the dry deserts feel pools of rain and snow. The true privilege of travel lies in its priceless features of humanity’s magnificent civilization forged from centuries ago. The topographical, linguistic, and cultural diversity our people possess merely become exceptional arguments supporting its discovery, understanding, and acceptance. A malleable escapade which introduces us to a world unknown, gifting us a myriad of unforgettable memories. Travelling is inspiring, challenging, fulfilling.
The Travelling Buzz
