#3 - The Two Journeys

Back in India, I read an article called "Travel is no cure for the mind" [https://moretothat.com/travel-is-no-cure-for-the-mind/]. It illustrated how changing your surroundings is not the answer to existential angst or the pursuit of joy and fulfillment in life. And while the article covered sufficient ground logically and comprehensively, there are lessons you only learn firsthand in life.

I was not naive enough to believe that travel or relocation would be a cure to my eternal questions about purpose and meaning. I still thought it was a welcome distraction from it. A distraction with experiences that would change us for the better in ways we could not fathom in the present. The dots that only connected backward. While most of this has broadly been true, sometimes these changes, like moving temporally or upending the social ties that were a shield against those anxieties in the first place, deepen the existential trauma rather than alleviate it.

Thus, while moving cities and traveling to new places may provide a respite in the short term, and indeed there is pleasure and adventure in it, one must do well to remember that there is a more difficult, more important distance to be traveled inside one's mind. A still, content and clear mind is an essential tool for a life well-lived. Understanding what you want and what makes you happy (and those two might not necessarily be the same), and how to navigate and guard it in a world determined to take everything from you is key to a happy, fulfilled life. So while traveling around to see the world does make life pleasurable and exciting, it is equally important to take the philosophical equivalent of these journeys inside your mind.

As Socrates said, 'the unexamined life is not worth living.'