Learning to appreciate the hiccups of travel. . .and life

Matt Gross recently wrote an excellent article at World Hum, called “The Minor Glories of Constant Motion.” It details what for Matt may be a typical morning on the go. He wakes early to go to the airport in Taiwan and along the way, his cab gets a flat tire. As he watches the driver change the tire, another cab pulls over and he gets in to ride with two women. At the airport he gets bumped to business class.

Nothing extraordinary happens (okay, if I was bumped to business, I might find that extraordinary), but Matt takes joy in the day’s events.

It wasn’t just the upgrade, though I appreciated that I’d be flying comfortably to Tokyo. It was that I’d had a full morning, eventful but undramatic, with all the hiccups and surprises and kindnesses and connections that I hope for every time I travel. This day had begun like any other, it was as normal as my life ever is, but it reminded me in a gentle way of why I do it again and again. Grand epiphanies are as nice as they are rare, but a life of constant movement provides plenty of small ones. For me, that’s enough.

What I loved so much about the piece was that it reminded me (again) that travel is less about the act of moving than it is a state of mind. Matt could have gotten mad about the flat tire and been stressed on his way to the airport. Instead, he accepted that these “hiccups” are a part of travel, and even more so, a part of life.

When something goes wrong on a trip we often look at it as serendipity. We’re more eager to let the road lead us where it may. But at home we worry about deadlines and any deviation from the plan makes us angry. Perhaps if we allowed ourselves to stay in that traveler’s state of mind at all times, our daily lives would seem a little less routine, and little more magical.

Photo credit: Eolevia Flickr