Travel has a way of reducing the traveler to essentials

“This emphasis upon travel as a test, as a loss that brings a gain of stature and certainty of self, suggests that the changes of character effected by travel are not so much the introduction of something new into the personality of the traveler as a revelation of something ineradicably present — perhaps courage, perdurance, the ability to endure pain, the persistence of skills and abilities even in a context of fatigue and danger. The transformations of passage are a species of “identification” through action, which adds to the being in motion only a consciousness of the irreducible form and individuality of that being. In the difficult and dangerous journey, the self of the traveler is impoverished and reduced to its essentials, allowing one to see what those essentials are.”
–Eric J. Leed, The Mind of the Traveler: From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (1991)

Posted by | Comments Off on Travel has a way of reducing the traveler to essentials  | December 29, 2014
Category: Travel Quote of the Day

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