The uncharted wilderness of your mind
Two things happen simultaneously when you travel: you discover a new place, and you discover something about yourself. The first is the stuff of travelogues, packed with adjectives (verdant, pristine) and descriptive shortcuts (It’s like The Lord of the Rings!); you know that National Geographic/Discovery Channel/Lonely Planet have been there before you. The second is an expedition into largely uncharted territory: yourself. You are in unfamiliar surroundings, among strangers; your comfortable assumptions do not operate here. We could argue that this is the natural, stripped-down, real version of you. Meet yourself. A mildly terrifying prospect, if you think about it: What if you don’t like you?
The other week I learned that I am a complete moron in the outdoors, that there are places in the world where no one’s heard of Manny Pacquiao, and 25 years is too short a time not to hear the 80s pop hit “Der Kommissar”. I learned that walking barefoot on stones is painful, where a handbrake is, and how to take a shower, shampoo, and apply conditioner in under ten minutes. I also confirmed my long-held suspicion that if you go to a dance club and the first song you hear is “It’s Raining Men”, you are in for a night of horror.
New Zealand, the epic in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
