http://www.scottlondon.com/interviews/iyer.html

“Travel, in the superficial sense at least, is a good cure for loneliness….But I think loneliness can come in a more fundamental way, just as you are saying, if you realize that you don’t have an affiliation anywhere and that if you are going to cast a vote it has to be a kind of inner vote — that you are not participating in any kind of democracy except a democracy of the self.

But even a country like this one, which seems to me the loneliest place in the world in many ways — if you acknowledge that loneliness you are one step closer to dealing with it.”

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I think it is a very exciting thing though…I don’t feel lost and that I have to find my home. I feel very privileged that I have the luxury to say “hmmm…where do I want to go/live next?” It’s exhilerating NOT knowing where I will be in five years, but that the options are (almost) endless. My wife and I are inhabitants of the world.

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It’s possibly my most hated question and I’ll do almost anything to avoid it: Where are you from? Hmmmmm… do you mean where was I born? Where my parents were from? Where I was brought up? How I feel or think? The question sets in motion a number of panic reactions as I try to guess what is actually being asked.

I don’t belong anywhere – I make my home wherever I am. I feel part of all of these cultures, but don’t really belong to any of them. Sometimes I miss not having ‘roots’. On the other hand, rather than the restrictions of place, I can enjoy the freedom of thought and feeling. I belong wherever I choose to.

I’m probably not on my last destination yet, but wherever I go, I’ll belong – I won’t really have any choice.

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There is an entire group of people, typified by Pico Iyer, who only identify with people like themselves – people so removed from any single recognizable culture that they feel like they belong to none, and thus create their own. They’re called “Global Nomads,” or sometimes “Third-World Kids” or “TCKs.” I wonder where they go to look for soul…

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Thanks for writing this. I’m sure there are a great many of us out there who share a perpetual sense of displacement. Some call it wanderlust, while others call it restlessness. Either way, I suppose the end result is the same – we are always looking forward to the next adventure, whatever it may be.

There are those who travel to find themselves, and there are those who travel to lose themselves. Perhaps reinvention and rediscovery of oneself requires both. In that regard, I wish you luck in becoming the Porcupine. At least, in the short run, it sounds like you have a destination.

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“I am simply between countries, cultures, friends, jobs and languages and am not sure whether I will ever settle in any of the places I visit. Travel is like an addiction.

I know that there are more and more people like me. They go to discover the world but realize at some point that they don’t know where they belong anymore.”

I feel the exact same way. I have no clue where I am going next but going back doesn’t feel like much of an option. Each new place and section in time feels completely separate from the other. It’s like living completely different lives. I think what drives most people is a search to not feel so “different” or like an outsider, but at the same time you come to embrace this difference as well as the opportunity to observe different cultures, lifestyles and worldviews…in the end, what you realize is that “fitting into the norm” isn’t necessary (or even desirable) but what matters is that you learn to accept yourself.

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