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Sometimes we read a sentence that resonates. Many years ago, in a Paul Theroux book, I came across a description of travel as being full of great inconvenience interrupted by the occasional epiphany. The words made me stop reading, although I can no longer find the quote or remember the book it came from. For me, travel is often not glamourous, or absorbing. It is made up of much waiting around for boats, trains or planes and then dragging luggage behind me while searching for a particular street while trying not to look like I'm a stranger. And during this turmoil, these moments can be interrupted by a joy that comes from something as simple as interaction with a stranger or catching sight of an ancient ruin, building or sunset. What gives us the epiphany is personal. I won’t bore you with mine.

Paul Theroux, for me, is the master of description when it comes to why we travel:

“The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown..”
― Paul Theroux, The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road

“Most travel, and certainly the rewarding kind, involves depending on the kindness of strangers, putting yourself into the hands of people you don't know and trusting them with your life.”
― Paul Theroux, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star

Mark Twain, a terrific chronicler of life, especially when he writes of his journey to Europe and the Middle East. The Innocents Abroad is both humorous and insightful. But the travel quote he is most remembered for is:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.”

When a writer can so perfectly articulate our experiences that we stop in our tracks and think about his words, then he has succeeded. My epiphany might not be his epiphany. But I got it.



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