traveller, ohne fixed place. raison d’etre, existentialism – Monday, October 09, 2006

feeling that having seen many parts of the world, there are things which are nearly impossible to explain, and i suppose that is because they are based on experience, and it is hard to say one thing without supporting it with all those other things that have happened earlier on..

which often revolve around existentialism often not and also the grave discrepancies in the world, which you see day in day-out from watching people…. for instance, when you are there, how do you explain to a person from the third or developing world, how people live in the first world, or vice-versa. It is almost as if you are telling them that reality as they know it does not exist.

or the ideals of one person or another…

i guess ideals is what is all about…

how do you tell a person who has eaten only indian food all their life, how swedish food must taste? or the preoccupation with one person for survival and another for affection perhaps through fashion, how do you do that?

To see americans travelling is another case in point.
how do you explain the viewpoint of the rest of the world in a day, when they have only known u.s. media, and again, vice versa.

I find myself retracing my steps mentally, and trying to find a raison d’etre, of what feels like a vast store of enthusiasm, a capacity for obsession and energy for life. open to suggestions to find a better way if not a truer way of life.

my favourite trips were those around early 20 still. to places like Bonneville Utah, and Winnedmucca, Nevada, and across Canada by bus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnemucca,_Nevada , in the same breath i try to imagine the muslim way of life in Malaysia, where in the flea markets there were store after store of portraits of Bin laden. crazy huh, and yet when you are there it is not so crazy… and the devotion of those people is equally the same as you would find in the vatican. around and around we go…

posted by alwinian at 4:32 PM

http://alwinian.blogspot.com/2006/10/traveller-ohne-fixed-place-raison.html