April 8, 2014
In the shower today, my best thinking place, I thought about the first moment I can recall when the idea occurred to me that I could travel to faraway places, if I chose to. My family lived near the top of the hill in Richmond, California, with a view of the Golden Gate. We had neighbors who were Japanese-American and the daughter was my age. On my 10th birthday the family gave me a gift. In my mind’s eye, I see 3 of them, parents and daughter, watching as I opened the small package to reveal a scarf, the most beautiful gift I’d ever received. It was clearly from Japan, the motifs told me so, and with a thrill I thought not only of the scarf itself, but of the place and a glimmer of possibilities.
I was born the month the war in Europe ended and so, just 10 years later, while it certainly didn’t occur to me at the time, from the vantage point of my shower this morning, I could see what a brave act it was for these lovely people to give me a gift so redolent of a place we’d recently considered one of the greatest enemies in our country’s history.
Much later, after several years of travel for my work, while I was staying at home with my infant son, I developed an interest in ancient Egypt. I read everything I could lay my hands on and remember I was particularly taken with the female Pharaoh, Hatshepsut and her beautiful temple at Deir el-Bahari. And the story of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Pharaoh and Royal Wife, who defied convention and the polytheistic religion of Egypt by proclaiming the concept of one god, the Aten, symbolized by the sun, and their new city, Amarna. I could picture myself wandering among the ruins.
I’ve seen the question posed before, why do we travel? I’m as convinced as I am about anything, that there’s no identifiable reason, in our DNA or in our experience, that we can separate and point to as the reason why we do it. I believe some are simply born to accomplish what they do, and among those things is travel. I tend to go all out in my life’s endeavors and so I have with seeing the world. No excuse will hinder a traveler – lack of funds, ambition, obligation. I think of it as my true calling, all else falls in place behind, I fear. I, and the others of us, know the feeling. If we can’t go we may die, so we go.
Interestingly, while I’ve now visited much of the world, I’ve never been to Japan and I’ve never seen Egypt, except from the bridge of a ship. My intention when I booked passage on the Rigoletto was to get off in Port Said. But politics intervened and I was not allowed off. I knew it before I set out from Singapore but it still hurt to see the place of my dreams and have it just beyond reach. But I suspect there will be opportunities yet, for Egypt and Japan. I still think about both and we know what that means.
