But I like to go places! Not going anywhere makes me unhappy.
You have out-traveled me. I cannot keep up. I am happy here, in my small space in the country, my past traveling companion tells me.
And I like my loft just fine. That’s not the point.
Anyone who has witnessed your excitement at booking a flight out will understand that your enthusiasm for where you live is, at best, tame.
Why does everyone question my love of Madison when, in fact, I spend more days in Madison than out of it?
If you could, you’d switch that balance of days.
I am so glad that my friends understand me better than I understand myself, for I would not have, myself, made that claim.
So where are you going this month? – my mother asks me this in the middle of September. I am terrified of telling her that, within a week I will be in France. The terror is rooted in past revelations of this sort. It’s sort of like admitting to crack addiction to your parent. You know they will wish that you were locked up. Normal people do not do crack. Normal people do not go away for a week-end in France.
For you, it’s natural. For me, for most people living here, it’s decadent. This from Ed again.
Is that true? Is it the case that most Americans would view frequent travel (and I include here not only ocean crossings, but also such things as weekends in the northwoods) as decadent? I am willing to forgo a lot to support my ramblings. I am willing to not own property, nor a car, I am willing to recycle clothing, to work extra, I own no jewelry and my CD collection sucks.
So why do you never invite me for dinner?
You’re never here.
Ah, we are at the level of excuses. I am with my lover – my passport, it grabs me away from the arms of friends and family, it makes me inaccessible. Or so the story goes.
You travel a lot. Admit it! You’re thinking of the next trip before you finish a current one.
No, I think of the next place and the place after even before I board the plane.
Me, I like travel, but I am always so glad to return home…
Me too, me too! I have great Internet at home! I like my work, I like the farmers market! And I like my trips.
A dealbreaker: what kind of traveling companion are you if you do not share my passion for travel? Or, at least you do not wish to indulge it?
I share some of it…
But in fact, most times I travel alone. If I count up the days away, most are without anyone across the dinner table, or over a café crème and a croissant. I am used to it.
Still, I want to ask this, work and finances permitting, would you not choose to get up and go? Bear witness to life elsewhere? Or is it just me and Johnny Apple?
I'd go.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is my role model in this. My father hated travel but that didn't stop my mother once finances and family life allowed. Her first trip abroad was to Rome as a class chaperone with my brother's high school Latin class. She didn't know if she'd ever get a chance to go back. Since then she has worn out two passports and been to Italy and Poland (her parents' homeland) dozens of times, along with Greece, Israel, Russia, Scandinavia, and other countries I am surely forgetting. On many of these trips, she was alone -- which is one reason, I think, that she was able to make friends nearly everywhere she went. She gets Christmas cards from all over the world from people she has met in her travels. It's awesome.
It's nice to be with someone you are compatible with when you travel. But it's also nice to just do what you want to do and not have to worry about anyone else. Your travel addiction is nothing to be ashamed of! You're quite successful at what you do and have ordered your life so you can do what you want. That, in my opinion, is exactly how it should be. Perfect!
I'd go, too. I'm a huge proponent of traveling alone - particularly for people that have spent very little time alone in their lives. It's probably the quickest way to get to know yourself and appreciate your strengths.
ReplyDeleteI'm young, fresh out of school, huge student debt dangling over my head, and yet I still scrape up the money to travel regularly. Like you, I just make sacrafices elsewhere. Technology allows me to have regular communication from my overseas friends (mostly from studying abroad years ago) and they are great hosts for my trips.
Go for it! You know what makes you happy and, while traveling with a good companion is great, traveling alone is priceless.
I feel for you girl. A good companion is hard to find! You need to nurture that. But you also know who you are. For what it’s worth, my 2 cents is, this sort of thing is NEVER about a trip! If your companion needs your support, you can (and will) always go to France some other time. But, if it really is about the lifestyle, you gotta be true to you!
ReplyDeleteSo, when are you going? The new Beaujolais are out in a month!
I'm in Sweden the rest of this week, Benelux next week. I'll hit the area around Paris 1 November. If our paths will cross, give me a yell! q
I occaisionally hitch a ride on one of your travel posts, Nina. Anywhere you're going is fine.
ReplyDeleteImmediate ocean crossings are posted in the sidebar. It is telling that someone may look over and say -- what, again? You just came back... I look over and think -- not until December? That is an awfully long way away.
ReplyDeleteBut it's the big ones that freak people -- like the one I am setting up for the greater parts of next May, June, July. Don't you know that these are the best months in Madison?Sure, but don't you know that these are the best months elsewhere as well?
Well, Nina, you know that I flee my home regularly in mid-June not to return until the beginning of August, so I am one who heartily supports the extended "vacation". But we both know that such long trips are never vacations, there's much work involved.
ReplyDeleteI find being away from home for long periods make me appreciate its charms all the more. When I'm here, I miss there -- when I'm there, I miss here. That's OK. It gives me something to look forward to, always.
I never went anywhere until I was 40. Now I've been in 27 countries in the last dozen years. I'm with you. Travel is good. Keep bringing it to us...
ReplyDeleteI would go, if I could.
ReplyDeleteI am sure that there are many others who, like me, live vicariously though Ocean.