More Food for the Traveling Thought

Sometimes it is the most random of books that I read that I find the most enlightening phrases and quotes about traveling. These are from Beach Music by Pat Conroy. Ok, so not a random book, but one not of my generation. Actually, I fell completely in love with this author and his ability to story-tell. As a lover of writing, I easily came to grips with how far off my talents lie from him. Writing and reading for me, evoke the same emotions as traveling. Entering a new world, new culture, meeting new peoples, not knowing exactly where you will end up physically, emotionally, philosophically. Anyways, before I get carried away, some excerpts...

The artfully hidden subtext in those first years was that foreign travel was worth every discomfort and foul-up, but took a radical toll on the spirit.

It only takes Rome about ten minutes to make you forget you have ever been anywhere else on earth.  In Rome, every step you take has been taken by a caesar, a pope, or a barbarian before you.  Every step carries you over a dozen civilizations, layered like shirts in a drawer.

For me memory was the country of the usable past but now I began to wonder if there was not also a danger to unrememberance.  I had recently become acutely aware that mistranslations, mistakes of emphasis, and the inevitability of a flawed interpretation could lead to an imperfect view of things.

Think on that :)