How Do You Really Know a Place Anyway?
I've been thinking a lot about this idea lately: "how do you really know a place anyway?"
What I mean by this is, How do you know when you've seen the best some place has to offer, and how do you know when it's time to move on? I'm talking about physical locales here, but the question could be larger- symbolic- existential- if you wanted.
But getting back to physical locales... the question of "how long will you be gone? and "how long will you be staying places?" are two that keep coming up.
I'm wondering how I will know the answer to these questions.
They've been coming up more often as I prepare to get on the road for a couple of months, maybe more. People have been asking me, "why are you doing this trip right now?"
And I have 3 main answers:
The first: I'm having a mid-life crisis a little bit early. I've always been precocious. :)
The second: I'm just coming out of a cycle of having worked really hard in a lot of ways- investing a lot in my business and my family and relationships- and I want to try out a different way of living before I embark on my next set of life goals (for example, having children + raising them)
The third: I want to see some parts of the country I might not get to visit otherwise.I want a chance to explore some new ideas and expand my perspective.
What's been interesting is that most people think my upcoming trip is really cool. Men, especially, seem to think it's super cool- and women are mixed. Some are excited for me; some seem to think I'm a little bit nutty or flaky, which, if you know me well, is really, really far from the truth. It's been interesting to notice reaction across gender lines.
The other thing that has been coming up sharply is a newfound appreciation for my hometown; brought on, probably, by this sense of leaving it for a while. As the weather turns nicer, and the cherry blossoms start to come out- and I get to see cool things like Terracotta Warriors- and eat yummy burgers at Rogue States- I start to have doubts, just slightly, about whatever I find on the road being any better than what I have here.
It's sort of like impending absence is making the heart grow fonder. But the other way I've been thinking about it is, maybe it's not really about better or worse- maybe just about different.
Certainly, the rest of the country has a lot to recommend it (no matter what the East Coast snobs say!), and it will be exciting to see more places.
It's been interesting to try and think about how long it would take to know a place. I'm sure that this trip will be about, in some ways, finding places I wanted to see, and then leaving with a sense of places I'd like to know better. I'm sure that there will be places I stay too long, and maybe places I don't feel quite ready to leave when it's time.
I'm reminded of the quote from T.S. Eliot:
"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring
will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
What do you think? What does it take to really know a place?
(Comments welcomed!)
