On Life as Travel and Our Fellow Travelers
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
We're all lost.
Life as Travel
It’s best to look at life as a voyage. Kerouac said “All of life is a foreign country.” He was right. One should approach life the same way one approaches travel. You’re always going to be in unfamiliar territory, but a good sense (Right Thought) will serve you well.
You're talking to a tourist whose every move's among the purest. |
The School Behind Traveling With Others
But even it should go beyond that. James Redfield, in his fictional Celestine Prophecy, proposes that every coincidence, indeed every person you meet, has been fated—the occurrence happened for a reason, for a teaching. This is to say that one should approach others with respect, because our fellow travelers are our teachers. Power struggles, control dramas that we engage in with these other travelers are not good. They are an inefficient use of time that should be spent figuring out what we can learn from others, and in finding the message behind our encounter with them.
The Rôle of Travel Guides
Some travelers exist in an extreme teacher rôle to us. These are in many forms—teacher in a school, a clergy member, a parent—and are called guru, mentor, or more. These are our Travel Guides. They are necessary, but hard to find. The task is finding a Guide that will suit us and help us move forward in our journey. Like everything worthwhile, this will take some heavy searching. Even this fits in with our analogy. Have you ever tried to find a small vegetarian restaurant somewhere in Soho in London? Nightmare. Or anything in Paris for that matter?
