How the experience of long-term travel changes (in good ways) as you get older

When you were younger, were there things that you were, can you point to anything that you were convinced of or perspectives that you had that your travel proved wrong?

Well, I always say that my travel proved that it wasn't as difficult, it wasn't as expensive, and it wasn't as dangerous as I thought it was.

I think that those are easy things that we use to dissuade ourselves from travel.

And in Vagabonding, I talk about this idea This story from the tradition of the Desert Fathers who have vows to stay in the monastery.

And they say, oh, we'll leave next spring.

And then when spring comes along, they say, oh, we'll leave next fall.

And that's sort of a ritual that they use to keep themselves in one place.

And as I say in Vagabonding, that we use these rituals, which are often fear-based, to keep ourselves at home, to sort of assuage...

the feeling of being at home when we would really like to travel.

And so those fears, you know, difficult, dangerous, complicated, those just don't play out.

And I think, weirdly enough, technology makes it easier to travel, but also makes it harder because it amplifies the fears or the need to micromanage as much as it does inform us about what's possible.

And I think humans have always been adaptable.

And oftentimes, I speak with my students every summer in Paris, they're always great, but oftentimes I give the younger ones a hard time and I say, well, don't worry about... you know, your data plan.

Just do time travel back to 1989 when you just got a map or you asked directions.

You know, we just have so many resources as human beings that were so adaptable.

You know, and before the tourist industry, you just figured it out.

You know, people would go on a pilgrimage to Rome and they would sleep in the woods or they would ask for hospitality from a church or whatever.

And so you just...

That's still a thing.

And I think that technology has tricked us into thinking that we need to micromanage our journeys when in fact, we'll figure it out.

I'm writing a little mini essay about a movie called The Entertainment System is Down.

Have you heard of this movie? No.

It's like a satirical thriller about a plane where the entertainment system goes out and the passengers just have this panic, like what to do with themselves on a 17-hour flight from London to Sydney.

And they tear up the floor panels trying to fix the entertainment system and it compromises the plane.

I mean, obviously it's a satire, but it just, it underpins, I think the reason it could be a delicious satire is it underpins that we've lost the ability to deal with our own boredom.