You’ve hit a lot of themes that have been bubbling up for me lately. I think there are so many people for whom the root cause of their malaise is ‘nowhere left to explore’. I’ll bet there was a time when it was comforting to know that someone’s out there doing the exploring, even if you weren’t doing it yourself.
Truly wish I could support your travels and work. There are few out there today who would heed such a calling. Be assured of my prayers from all my miles on the pilgrims road this year
Have always loved maps, just looking at them and dreaming, they fire the imagination.....an absolutely beautiful essay, looking forward to travel bulletins, at my age I think I will travel vicariously through you....
My dad was the same way, Irish and always ready to take the untraveled road if for no other reason than to see where it went. As a boy in the back seat behind him I was the map reader and always seconded his urge to explore, especially those roads not on the map.
Yes I reckon I am, as I was a sailor on a Great Lakes icebreaker for a time and some part of me was left on Lake Superior in particular. I will always miss the sailor's life ever since I got a taste of it, though, for the sake of marriage I am just as glad to be away from it. Charts remind me of all of that.
When I was a kid I was entranced by the adventure of Toad's gypsy caravan. I wanted to get one and kit it out as he had and travel about Ireland in it. I had heard that in Ireland artists and writers were not charged income tax (I don't know if this is still true) and thought that a life of travel and looking at things and writing about them was my perfect life. I still do, rather.
It is a fascinating question to think on what our blood and ancestry says about who we should become. What about when competing impulses exist from different bloodlines, or in some cases how do we even know what our ancestors were like?
For me, I know down my German roots I can find millennia of farmers who have... well been farming, all the way back to the concubine of a great king. But what does the Norwegian blood mean? Should I take wisdom and knowledge from the roots my ancestors ultimately have in the Vikings of yore, or should I rather find my roots in those who rejected that culture under the transforming influence of Christianity. Is one simply a continuation of the other with a new and expanded vision, or is the latter a refutation of the former?
I love your willingness to engage with this idea and explore what "blood memory" means. I don't necessarily take this 100% serious (the modern skeptic in me still scoffs), but at the same time I think all people who pay attention to their common sense know that the modern notion that man is a totally nurtured being with no real influence from his ancestors blood and being is baloney.
Whatever I am, I suspect it is rather less of a traveler or wanderer. Perhaps a warrior, perhaps a farmer, but not a shepherd or nomad. I wish you luck on exploring that ancestral legacy, perhaps you need to pick up the kilt on some occasions my friend!
I shall be enjoying my brats in the warm comfort of a fire my friend! Perhaps with the booty of my latest raid paying for the meal!
I’m of Scottish descent, and several days ago I got an email informing me of the chance to be one of the first students from my university to take a 2 week excursion to Antarctica next winter. It awoke something inside me. I can’t go because of prior commitments but I truly believe I’ll think about it the rest of my life.
You’ve hit a lot of themes that have been bubbling up for me lately. I think there are so many people for whom the root cause of their malaise is ‘nowhere left to explore’. I’ll bet there was a time when it was comforting to know that someone’s out there doing the exploring, even if you weren’t doing it yourself.
Love that this gypsy found that nomad!!
Truly wish I could support your travels and work. There are few out there today who would heed such a calling. Be assured of my prayers from all my miles on the pilgrims road this year
Have always loved maps, just looking at them and dreaming, they fire the imagination.....an absolutely beautiful essay, looking forward to travel bulletins, at my age I think I will travel vicariously through you....
My dad was the same way, Irish and always ready to take the untraveled road if for no other reason than to see where it went. As a boy in the back seat behind him I was the map reader and always seconded his urge to explore, especially those roads not on the map.
I share your lifelong love of maps.
Are you similarly fond of nautical charts, historical or current?
Yes I reckon I am, as I was a sailor on a Great Lakes icebreaker for a time and some part of me was left on Lake Superior in particular. I will always miss the sailor's life ever since I got a taste of it, though, for the sake of marriage I am just as glad to be away from it. Charts remind me of all of that.
As a Carnie and a Vagabond myself, I approve of this message.
When I was a kid I was entranced by the adventure of Toad's gypsy caravan. I wanted to get one and kit it out as he had and travel about Ireland in it. I had heard that in Ireland artists and writers were not charged income tax (I don't know if this is still true) and thought that a life of travel and looking at things and writing about them was my perfect life. I still do, rather.
brilliant
It is a fascinating question to think on what our blood and ancestry says about who we should become. What about when competing impulses exist from different bloodlines, or in some cases how do we even know what our ancestors were like?
For me, I know down my German roots I can find millennia of farmers who have... well been farming, all the way back to the concubine of a great king. But what does the Norwegian blood mean? Should I take wisdom and knowledge from the roots my ancestors ultimately have in the Vikings of yore, or should I rather find my roots in those who rejected that culture under the transforming influence of Christianity. Is one simply a continuation of the other with a new and expanded vision, or is the latter a refutation of the former?
I love your willingness to engage with this idea and explore what "blood memory" means. I don't necessarily take this 100% serious (the modern skeptic in me still scoffs), but at the same time I think all people who pay attention to their common sense know that the modern notion that man is a totally nurtured being with no real influence from his ancestors blood and being is baloney.
Whatever I am, I suspect it is rather less of a traveler or wanderer. Perhaps a warrior, perhaps a farmer, but not a shepherd or nomad. I wish you luck on exploring that ancestral legacy, perhaps you need to pick up the kilt on some occasions my friend!
I shall be enjoying my brats in the warm comfort of a fire my friend! Perhaps with the booty of my latest raid paying for the meal!
I’m of Scottish descent, and several days ago I got an email informing me of the chance to be one of the first students from my university to take a 2 week excursion to Antarctica next winter. It awoke something inside me. I can’t go because of prior commitments but I truly believe I’ll think about it the rest of my life.