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Thomas Jefferson once said: Travel makes you more wise and less happy.
I'm totally in agreement with that statement, do you agree?
After many travels around the world, oh yes, I've become much more wise, yet, at the same time, less and less happy.
I now find myself envying those that have never left their home counties or home states. Particularly, my grandfather who never left the county he was raised in, and would laugh aloud at visiting grandchildren telling him of all their great travels, correcting them all saying: You'll never find more beautiful country than right here in SE Minnesota with all these beautiful hills and rivers.
NOW! Drag Grandpa off to the Applachian Mountains, he returns, and thinks: Gee! I guess these hills around here are not so beautiful after all, those Appalachian mountains were pretty exciting. NOW! Drag Grandpa off to the Rocky Mountains and he returns home, THEN drag Grandpa off to see the Andes Mountains of South America, THEN drag Grandpa off to see the Himalayans in Nepal. Would anyone want to be that cruel to Grandpa? After all that, you might be visiting a very wise, miserable Grandpa.
Does anyone else have regrets today, and envy the happily untraveled?
Last edited by tijlover; 03-04-2009 at 01:27 AM..
Reason: Forgot a word
I get your point, and there is definitely truth to it...happiness is relative to your experiences.
Precisely because of this, I believe travel also has the potential to make you happier. If you only ever vacationed in fine five-star resorts with wealthy people, then had to go back to your boring middle-class life, you are likely to be less happy. However, if you go to a poor African country and live in a hovel for a week, you are likely to be happier when you get home. There are extreme and mostly unrealistic examples, but you get my drift.
Therefore, if your travels take you to a variety of locations you have the opportunity to see how the rest of the world lives, both better off or worse off than you. Also, the OP refers to increasingly impressive scenery in their example, but it assumes you go out and see bigger and better versions of what you already have at home. When you travel you also get to see things that are nothing like anything you've ever seen, so you have no point of reference to begin with.
I don't think I'm less happy for my travels, I would be unhappy had I not had the opportunity to have these experiences. I'd give up my happy obliviousness for a bit of wisdom! I certainly don't envy the untraveled, I feel a bit sorry for them!
I certainly don't envy the untraveled, I feel a bit sorry for them!
Yes.
I feel the sorriest for the people who *do* travel and get little or nothing out of it.
Still, I realize that not everyone seeks a life-changing impact when they leave town.
Sometimes people just want to relax and get away from it all on their vacation.
Others might go on a mission, some to the Peace Corps, still others are on some sort of vision quest.
When I was younger and first traveled, the new perspectives that took place did create sort of a yearning in me. I wanted to integrate some of those experiences into my life at home in the States, and to some degree I was able to do this.
I suppose travel is as ephemeral as you let it be.
Thomas Jefferson once said: Travel makes you more wise and less happy.
Does anyone else have regrets today, and envy the happily untraveled?
Why? I still can't comprehend why it would make one less happy. You didn't really give a reason.
Now for Thomas Jefferson you have to put it in context - he was a business traveler afterall, working for the government or in various capacities as a statesman, so it couldn't say he had leasure travel. And travel during that day was an ordeal, no quicker than it was during the times of Christ. You either had to spend 10 hours a day on the back of a horse or jarring carriage, or 2 months crossing the ocean on a rocking 80 foot long ship eating rotting salted meat with 400 other people, then spend a year or more away from home and your loved ones. And WE complain about a 10 hour flight and a 2 week business trip.
It is best to travel, to truly come back and value where we lives or grew up. This does not mean travel makes us unhappy, I think it depends on how you look at life, travel is a learning experience and you will always have home to come back to.
Why? I still can't comprehend why it would make one less happy. You didn't really give a reason.
Now for Thomas Jefferson you have to put it in context - he was a business traveler afterall, working for the government or in various capacities as a statesman, so it couldn't say he had leasure travel. And travel during that day was an ordeal, no quicker than it was during the times of Christ. You either had to spend 10 hours a day on the back of a horse or jarring carriage, or 2 months crossing the ocean on a rocking 80 foot long ship eating rotting salted meat with 400 other people, then spend a year or more away from home and your loved ones. And WE complain about a 10 hour flight and a 2 week business trip.
I believe you're missing the point here. The way I interpret the saying is much different
After traveling much of the world, I now ask myself what would make me happy enough to never travel again and merely enjoy the place I'm now living.
And the list gets longer and longer after each trip:
1. A great subway or light rail system
2. Hopping in the back of a pick-up truck or riding on those fun chicken buses like I did throughout Central America
3. Eating some REAL home-raised chicken, eating a chicken leg 2-3 times bigger than what you buy at KFC and much tastier
4. Enjoying a nice thick juicey steak dinner for $5 a la Argentina
5. Being in a city where there's a preponderance of outdoor cafes/restaurants like I enjoyed in many cities in South America and Europe
6. Those wonderful motels/hotels in Latin America with their rooftop decks
7. A red light/bar district like I've frequented so many times in the Zona Norte area of Tijuana, Mexico
8. Dental clinics where I can get a crown put in for $60 like I had done in South America last year
9. Feeling safer walking around town. Won't most world-savvy travelers tell you that they always feel safer outside the confines of their own country?
10. The preponderance of pirated DVD/CD stands throughout Latin America
and SE Asia, where I can pick up a top-notch DVD or CD for a buck
11. Being somewhere where people seem NEVER to be in a hurry to get anywhere.
12. Being around stupidly honest people, like in Central America. Is is really necessary, when I ride their chicken buses down there, that they all but break their necks to make sure I get the exact change from a bus fare? Keep the change, idiot!
I could go on and on and on. If I had never traveled outside my city, my country, there'd be no complaints. I'd have no points of reference. I'd be blissfully ignorant of the offerings of the rest of the world and I'd probably be as happy as a pig rolling in poop where I live now. But it's too late. I have to keep traveling or wallow in misery or work with the city government somehow to reshape my city to my selfish desires.
I have to keep traveling or wallow in misery or work with the city government somehow to reshape my city to my selfish desires.
That is a telling statement...I think when we travel we get to see the good things of other parts of the world which we perhaps hadn't considered before.
This results in the expansion of our formerly narrow horizons, and a consideration of what might make the place where we are better. In other words, we can draw on our new knowledge to better ourselves and where we live.
It is obviously not possible for one person alone to change their city, however you do have the power to lobby, to change others attitudes or at least to look for an area within your city or country that might better fulfill your new requirements (although travel by chicken-buses could be a tough one!). For me, after experiencing living in a semi-chaotic, high density, non-suburban setting, I couldn't move back to a suburb because I feel I'd die of boredom. Therefore, where-ever I go, I'll seek out an urban, downtown setting.
I always try to put it in perspective by remembering that what seems charming when on holiday can be entirely different, and not so charming, if you are a resident.
That is a telling statement...I think when we travel we get to see the good things of other parts of the world which we perhaps hadn't considered before.
This results in the expansion of our formerly narrow horizons, and a consideration of what might make the place where we are better. In other words, we can draw on our new knowledge to better ourselves and where we live.
It is obviously not possible for one person alone to change their city, however you do have the power to lobby, to change others attitudes or at least to look for an area within your city or country that might better fulfill your new requirements (although travel by chicken-buses could be a tough one!). For me, after experiencing living in a semi-chaotic, high density, non-suburban setting, I couldn't move back to a suburb because I feel I'd die of boredom. Therefore, where-ever I go, I'll seek out an urban, downtown setting.
I always try to put it in perspective by remembering that what seems charming when on holiday can be entirely different, and not so charming, if you are a resident.
I think that's the dilemma world travelers face. There are people, tired of my complaints, urge me to move to my idyllic dream place, but that doesn't exist. I wouldn't move to Central America for their home-grown tasty chicken or just to ride their chicken buses everyday or buy their pirated DVD's and CD's, there'd be too much else that would be missing. The same with moving to Argentina to be closer to the Andes mountains or having a preponderance of outdoor cafes and restaurants to enjoy everyday, there'd be too much else missing. And I couldn't move to NYC just for their subway system alone.
But, yes, you can work with the city government to try and make welcome changes to your city, not just for your own selfish reasons, but hopefully to benefit everybody living there.
I believe you're missing the point here. The way I interpret the saying is much different
I get your point, but I am not sure that was his point. Anyone know the context in which he said that?
I don't know, as much as I like traveling I also like a place to call home with all it's comforts. I've seen alot of amazing places, but also alot of ugly places, lots of poverty, lots of ignorance. I've never been on a vacation where, as much as I enjoyed myself and enjoyed seeing other cultures and history, that I haven't left thinking how lucky I am to live in the United States.
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