Journeys
Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships or trains. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is before our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, and new thoughts, new places. Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do; the task can be as paralysing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand. Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks - charged with listening to music, for example, or following a line of trees. The music or the view distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness, and which runs scared of memories, longings and introspective or original ideas, preferring instead the administrative and the impersonal. - Alain de Botton, "The Art of Travel"Couldn't have set it better - couldn't agree more. And then he starts to talk about train rides as "the best aid to thought"...then again, it depends what kind of train. Amtrak across the Midwest, particularly in the viewing car, is like watching a moving gallery of flat landscapes. Eurail is OK too if you can stand stinky travel companions. But my memories of the PNR coffins on rails leave a lot to be desired in terms of romantic Orient Express-like travel. And you couldn't pay me to take on that Amazing Race challenge on India's version of the LRT.
posted by Honey Oliveros @ 4:00 PM
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