It’s all good. The other thing that sucks about the ‘Net is you can’t buy someone a beer on Friday night.

Cool! I CAN be brief!

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I’m sorry I misunderstood your post, and thanks for your, um, comprehensive reply.

“If I could look you in the eye right now, I think this wouldn’t be a big deal. We could hear the tone of voice and inflections, speak with better feedback. The ‘Net is good for some things, but really – it’s supposed to be an aid, not a replacement, to human interaction.”

I agree wholeheartedly on this one.

“Some of my best friends are WASPs.”

That one made me laugh out loud.

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My concern is that the word “traveler” is going the way of “artist” and “writer”. In other words, we end up with some kind of elite group and a label that doesn’t make sense after a while.

Am I a tourist or a traveler? I’m both, or neither. I’m someone who travels.

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No worries. None at all. =)

(Ooo-kee, here we go with a hopefully not-too-long reply. They always start with that hope…)

When I wrote this article, I knew it would stir the pot. The automatic reaction is “Oh, yay – ANOTHER traveler/tourist post with someone telling me how to travel.” It’s understandable, because the discussion is such a slippery slope. They quickly go from “Hey, I had this incredible experience and I want everyone to have likewise!” to “You don’t want to be like THEM, you want to be like ME…” But overall, I don’t think anybody means any harm when they talk about this topic. But it does cause a division where one didn’t exist before. I certainly don’t think Fussell had this in mind, but it drifts that way in nothing flat. Understandably.

And the response is just as quick: Who are you to tell me how to travel? And I agree. That’s what the article tries to convey. The heart of the debate is “Who am I – who is anyone – to try to define what’s meaningful for anyone else?” That’s not what I’m trying to do, because nobody can. No one should try, and no one should accept it.

What I want to do is move the T/T contrast to a place where it can do most good. You’re the only one who can decide what travel means for you – is what you’re doing right now working for you? Does it feel right to you, or even… authentic? The only place that question is decided is in your own heart. I can’t sit here and write an essay to tell you that what I’m after is better than what you’re after. That’s garbage.

I’m afraid you have what I’m trying to say a little backwards. I don’t believe that the experience of travel is diminished because people are limited. I believe instead that people are diminished because the experience of travel is limited. And I believe it’s getting worse instead of better.

I went traveling for six months in Europe around May, 2001. When I got back, it was a few months after Sept. 11. When I tried to explain what incredible things I’d seen in other places, the reply was “What’s so bad about the United States?” The whole country was twitchy. So I left for a few years.

When I came back, it was still weird. People don’t talk like they used to. They’re afraid of offending one another – but more than that, they’re afraid of one another. The country I left is gone missing: we’re becoming more and more isolated and skeptical of the people around us. We prefer to see people from the safe distance of phones and TV, see the world from virals and soundbytes. And people are so nervous about being judged and written off, so they restrict themselves more and more. If you see travel as being able to open up to exotic experiences to grow as a human being, then you must see that it’s not doing so hot these days. Instead, we’ve got paranoia and anxiety and trying to fight the tide is a major battle.

I want people to do it themselves. All I want to do is offer some advice for how to find what you’re looking for on your OWN terms. If I say “Hey, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t all nail ourselves to trees?” it’s not because I consider myself any better than anyone else. “What qualifies you to tell people not to nail themselves to trees, jerk?” Gosh – nothing, I suppose… If I write an article suggesting that we lay off judging one another, and let our conscience be our guide, I must admit that no, “I’m not the boss of you.” It’s just to bring something to the table, help someone feel better in their lives. I promise, I don’t have a picture of myself over my bed. I just want to do some good.

Eva, if I’ve offended you, I apologize. It wasn’t my intention. I don’t think I’m any better or worse than anyone else here. My post was meant to convey my distaste for judgments like this, not try to elevate myself. If I misunderstood your joke back on the TV post – hey, I’m sorry. But please understand, when I say that the “only, true, authentic” sense of travel comes from within and not from what other people tell you, just chalk it up to poetic license. I’m not demanding a thing. But it would be nice if we could be better to one another.

If I could look you in the eye right now, I think this wouldn’t be a big deal. We could hear the tone of voice and inflections, speak with better feedback. The ‘Net is good for some things, but really – it’s supposed to be an aid, not a replacement, to human interaction. I mean no offense to you or anyone else. If you’ve been burned for not fitting in, I’m not holding any matches here.

I wish you only the best, Eva. Thank you for your replies, thank you for your posts. And, just so you know, I like WASPs. “Some of my best friends are WASPs.” =)

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It’s been my experience that most of the people who claim to want to change the world are really just looking to stoke their egos and feel superior, exactly like the materialist types they criticize, only with disingenuity added in to boot. But, while we’re on the subject of labelling and judgment, Daniel, I suppose a couple of 800-word blog items aren’t enough for me to lump you in with all those people just yet.

I basically switch off any time I see the words “authentic” or “true” appearing anywhere near “travel”… It’s a dangerous road to go down, in my opinion anyway.

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Daniel – I’m glad to hear you don’t approve of labels, I’d gotten the impression from your article that you still believe in the traveler/tourist distinction but that you wanted to alter or broaden the terms a little:

“Travel becomes tourism when focus shifts from the experience itself to the vehicle of experience.”

Don’t you think that you are still defining terms and categories for people with that statement? And the lines I mentioned in my first comment about “authenticity” and the “whole point” of travel?

I don’t mean to be rude, but I was a little surprised to read the above quote about people being “summed up and ripped for their lifestyles”, coming from you. To be honest, I’ve noticed a general turn in some of BNT’s content lately towards, um, to put it bluntly, smug self-righteousness, judgment and condescension (see: “Christmas Compassion”) and I have to admit I had you “labelled” as part of that trend. In large part thanks to your response to my little joke about being a TV-watcher, on “Television is not the truth”:

“The people who DO know [what's going on in the world] are the ones who read newspapers and magazines (not a made-up statistic). Go to Europe, they’ve got cafes, beer gardens… they TALK to one another. Here we’ve got bars where the music’s jacked up too loud, and we barely know our neighbors’ names.

Did you know that people who watch TV think their community is a more dangerous place than non-watchers? That’s because TV focuses on violence and bad news. Slow news days are boring: they’ve gotta be juiced to get ratings to sell product.”

I’ve gotta ask – do you only feel nauseous when people judge liberals as birkenstock-wearing do-gooders, or does it also bother you when people dismiss those who are on the other side of the fence as well? Say, as uninformed, paranoid couch potatoes with no sense of community, wasting their lives in darkened rooms?

Sorry to let all that loose here. I’ve been bottling it up for awhile. You know me, just another repressed WASP with a liberal arts degree.

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So instead, Dan tried to dissect the differences from the inward motivation of the participants. Do you travel to learn? To expand your mind? To experience? Or do you travel to be pampered? To distract yourself from reality? To live in a fairy tale?

Only the individual can search inside and discover their personal motivations for leaving home. Therefore, everyone else is just passing judgments on what they believe someone else represents.

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