The True Meaning of Travel
Travel. The word itself conjures countless ideas, visions, and emotions. Every human being thinks of travel in different ways. For many, perhaps, travel evokes thoughts of long waiting lines at airports, traffic jams, or the quintessential summer vacation. This concept is but a microcosm of travel, which, in its essence, means much more. At its broadest dictionary definition, travel is “to move, pass, or be transmitted.” To define travel is to define a journey, a quest, a homecoming, a final departure, or an escape. Travel is advancement through the human experience: the journey of life.
The physical act of travel has undergone a remarkable transformation during the past two centuries. It was stifled for millennia by the limits of human mobility. Finally, advances in technology spurred a renaissance, as new forms of transportation were born. Railroads blazed the trail, and then humanity conquered the skies, slipping the surly bonds of Earth for the first time. Even a single century brought incredible progress: in May 1869, the first transcontinental railroad was completed. One hundred years and two months later, man would travel nearly 250,000 miles to the moon. The problems of distance and human endurance were vanquished; still, the definition of travel has grown ever more complex, as the literal act of it has become much simpler.
If travel is defined by the individual, what defines travel? The answer lies with circumstance. Every person lives in different conditions and in different environments. The definition of travel varies with human existence. An individual’s socio-economic status, country of origin, employment, family, and life experiences help to shape personal definitions of travel. For wealthy New York socialites, to travel might be to fly via private jet to Palm Beach for the weekend. A middle-class family in Britain might take advantage of discount flights to Spain for a summer holiday. A poor family in the rural Appalachian coal country may only travel to the county seat, in search of work, housing, or support. For their children, an excursion to a nearby urban shopping mall could be their first exposure to the world beyond the rugged hills.
The reasons for travel change as well: people travel for work, pleasure, education, love, war, and survival; some only travel for the journey itself. In the words of Robert Louis Stevenson,
“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.”
The siren song of wandering calls out to many people.
Consider for a moment the journeys embarked upon by humans, even at this very moment in time. Across the world, travelers are departing on the vacations of their dreams. Many people are going home: home to stay, home to visit, home to welcome a new baby, or home to say goodbye to an old friend. Business people are traveling, to make deals, to visit faraway factories, or to otherwise supervise the engines of the world economic machine. Somewhere, perhaps, a small boat carrying dozens of desperate immigrants is sailing across stormy waters, in search of new opportunities in distant nations. There are refugees on their own travels across lands near and far; victims of oppression, famine, and natural disasters. While one person may be traveling to Italy for a grand culinary tour, someone on the African continent is simultaneously engaged in a trek in search of food and water. One person’s vacation is another’s mighty struggle for survival, yet with the same goals and the same common link: travel.
Journeys do not have to be physical. Consider the recent preponderance of travel television shows. It is now possible to view the wonders of Earth in high-definition clarity without ever leaving home. And, for some, travel is a journey that takes place only in the mind’s eye. To reflect on life’s memories is to travel back in time, if only in the imagination. An elderly person, afflicted with dementia, might spend their days reliving their early lives, if only to themselves. In the words of Claire Day, who works with the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, “reminiscing is the success of people with dementia.” Even these people are travelers, mentally returning to better days and happier times.
The march of time is the travel of the world. Everyone is constantly traveling; even as we sit stationary, we are travelers through the universe, with Earth as our conveyance. Travel is the voyage of all humankind, our shared progress through time, space, and distance. It satisfies yearnings of exploration and discovery, for, as it was once said,
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
In this quote, often attributed to Mark Twain, the reader is encouraged to set out on their own travels, free from fear and in search of a great adventure. For, indeed, to travel is to live and to live is to travel. Life itself is the grandest of journeys, and travel is the progress along the path of the human experience.
Thoughts from Aloft 