Break Week is over, and I think it has been well used. I got into Denver International Airport at about 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. My eyes and mind were glazed and I thought, “When I woke up this morning I was in Shanghai yesterday afternoon.” I had traveled more than 15,000 miles since leaving home; but you travelers out there know it is not about the miles as much as it is the experiences and the people you meet.
Out on the road, the people come from everywhere, for all kinds of reasons, and they become your friends because fate has brought you to them to share a moment of their lives.
Out of all those folks, the most interesting are those like the young German who had spent a month in India and another month in Thailand and was passing through China on his way to Russia to ride the Trans-Siberian Railroad back to Europe. He certainly had stories, and will create many more before he is back home.
Yes, the most interesting are the business travelers who are winding down after hammering out the agreement to supply zippers or thread to the garment factory that is going to send your local Walmart the latest American fashions. Those folks have quite a lot to tell their bosses and co-workers.
In fact, the most interesting are those in the tour group, in the country for a 10 day vacation and then back home. They have real lives back there – not like those who are always on the move. They bring the perspective of one looking at a new land through new eyes. Listen to what they have to say and you will find great insights.
The most interesting, though, are the few who have come to this foreign country to live and work among its people for a whole year or more. They have a unique understanding and their stories will help us all better understand the international community.
That is why the most interesting folks you meet here are the aging pensioners who have never left this province in their entire lives. They move slowly with bags of rice in the carts and stop to complain to neighbors – or to anyone who will listen – about the burden of the outrageous government taxation.
Of course there are also your family members who are the most interesting people because each of them can share observations with you from a common and shared set of past experiences. There is no one else who can give you more personal stories that fit your unique individual understanding.
And there is not a single one of these people who is more interesting than the Observer who is somewhere inside you. That Observer sees and hears all that is around you and knows – absolutely knows – that what you see and hear are not stories of the past or the future; they are all with you right here, right now, this moment.
Ah, but that is the Observer’s story. Our human brain is wired so that we cannot process anything we see or hear for several milliseconds after the so-called “physical sensation.” Consequently, the Observer is leaning forward on its bar stool telling more and more stories about the recent past.
The song “Yesterday’s Wine” was written for Willie Nelson’s 1971 album of the same name. That was a concept album that told the story of the “Imperfect Man” from birth until the day he died. On the album, Willie explains its purpose by saying, “Yes, there’s great confusion on earth, and the power that is has concluded the following: Perfect man has visited earth already and His voice was heard; The voice of Imperfect Man must now be made manifest; and I have been selected as the most likely candidate.” In this song, the narrator recognizes one who appears widely traveled and asks that traveler to sit down and tell his story. When you and I are on the road we understand that there is a camaraderie among travelers. Willie understands that all the time.
This song has also been on several other Willie Nelson albums, but it was never a big hit for him. Still, it did help Willie to eventually pay his taxes because it became a Number One hit for for Merle Haggard and George Jones in 1982, and it has been recorded by many other artists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ7sYvYexAs
Yesterday’s Wine
By Willie Nelson
Miracles appear
In the strangest of places
Fancy meeting you here
The last time I saw you
Was just out of Houston
Sit down let me buy you a beer
With me and my friend here
This is a hangout of mine
We come here quite often
And listen to music
Partaking of yesterday’s wine
I’m yesterday’s wine
Aging with time
Like yesterday’s wine
Yesterday’s wine
We’re yesterday’s wine
Aging with time
Like yesterday’s wineYou give the appearence
Of one widely traveled
I’ll bet you’ve seen
Things in your time
So sit down beside me
And tell me your story
If you think
You’ll like yesterday’s wine
We’re yesterday’s wine
Aging with time
Like yesterday’s wineYesterday’s wine
We’re yesterday’s wine
Aging with time
Like yesterday’s wine
Sounds like you did the intensive grand tour of humanity. Good to have you back. I’ve missed the opportunities your posts offer me to go all philosophical on myself and others.
Yes, there is a camaraderie among travelers. The road is not owned, it’s shared. Travelers move outside the safe walls of castle and keep. They are more aware of the reality of nature on the road. They’re more attuned to their vulnerability there and more cognizant of, and vigilant for, the opportunity to form a community with another human being, no matter how briefly. It’s a good window on one of the basic features of our human nature.
We are a species which is collaborative, communal, and synergetic. Even the solitary traveler holding apart from others and seemingly an island unto themselves seeks to find the principles or people or places or things which deliver them to the experience of being a participant in a collective where two or more are gathered together in a common cause, a common knowledge, a common experience or viewpoint. A true hermit is indeed a rare thing. Perhaps even they dream of the company of other hermits like themselves.
Common causes can be almost anything. They can be as mundane as crop-gathering, as evil as genocide, as good as living in a relationship where one plus one equals one. On the road our common cause is reduced to the bare essentials; survival, and information exchange, and the establishment of solid ground in the passing moment.
The “moment” is interesting, too, as you observe. Or your Observer observes. “Thief of Time” by Terry Pratchett is a favorite book of mine, and in it he talks about the “tick” of the universal clock. It’s the basic rate of time itself, the shortest measure of time in the universe. The present exists only within that tick. Before it lies the past, after it is the future. So “now” is the briefest moment in the universe according to Pratchett.
But if you think about it you can see (see footnote) that if the briefest moment in the universe is indeed just that, then no other measure of time can exist within it and therefore “now” is non-existent. So if we do manage to achieve being in the now, we are nowhere. This is a fine example of the mental process running into a door. (See footnote.)
Silly old thing, this cortical assemblage we have on board. A finite series of synapses trying to get a grip on the infinite. Better to have a nice lunch and a good nap, don’t you think? Or an interesting chat with a fellow traveler…
Footnote(s):
“First Sight means you can see what really is there…” and Fourth Thoughts although these…sometimes led her to walk into doors.”
“(First) Thoughts are the everyday thoughts. Everyone has those. Second Thoughts are the thoughts you think about the way you think. People who enjoy thinking have those. Third Thoughts are thoughts that watch the world and think all by themselves. They’re rare, and often troublesome.”
There are also “… Fourth Thoughts although these…sometimes led her to walk into doors.”
Which brings us around again to the thought that synaptic speculation, while fun, must give away the ground here because it’s time for a nice lunch, a small glass of yesterday’s wine with Lenore, and a good nap afterward. Welcome home, Louis.