"At this point in the summer - and the pandemic -," a recent New York Times article begins, "the desire to escape to a far away place might be overwhelming."
It is common for the travel industry to use an escape narrative to sell their products and services.
Everything from cars to cruises are sold as a way for you, the prisoner of your boring, ho-hum life, to escape to greener pastures, toward the idilic utopia of your dreams.
So engrained in our thinking is this notion of having to run, flee and hide that it has led us to want to escape our very own planet.
Billionaires are lining up to be the first to leave the planet in one of the most ridiculous escape stories of all time.
Everything from cars to cruises are sold as a way for you, the prisoner of your boring, ho-hum life, to escape to greener pastures, toward the idilic utopia of your dreams.
So engrained in our thinking is this notion of having to run, flee and hide that it has led us to want to escape our very own planet.
Billionaires are lining up to be the first to leave the planet in one of the most ridiculous escape stories of all time.
There is no green in space, and no escape from the infinite vacuum that expands in all directions.
Your back yard is more attractive than any singular spot of the black void.
Over the last couple of decades Linda and I have been working on building a life that is so good that we don't feel the need to "get away" to anywhere else.
What is it that the travel industry thinks we need to escape? Our own boring lives? Being confined to our jobs and our cars? Our bosses? Our selves?
The only thing people need to escape is a crappy system that first makes us miserable with work and busyness, then takes advantage of that feeling to sell us crappy holidays that are supposed to make us feel better.
We're not buying that. Our story is right here in our own neighbourhood.
Leaving consumerism is the ultimate escape. No flights or travel agents required.
So much about "travel" is so annoying...just makes me shudder to think of it! We love our backyard very much, and our local parks are very nice. Our longer travels are day trips to the beach or others places relatively close by. We do like to have a change of scenery for the day, but love coming back to our home and our own bed. - Mary
ReplyDeleteOh Mary, I have been thinking about this a great deal in the past few months and I could not agree more. As I have been drawing closer to retirement everyone has been all, "Oo, you'll get a chance to travel now" and I have been smiling weakly and finding something distracting and more interesting to do, like clean my glasses. At first I thought it was all because travelling with my ex-husband was always a nightmare (putting it mildly) but then I began to realise that, especially since 9/11 and all that travel has come to entail, travel isn't fun any more - it is just bl**dy exhausting. I have awesome camping gear (can all be set up by one little 4 foot 13 inch old lady) and there is a great provincial park half an hour outside the city - a couple weeklong or ten day stretches - aahh! I feel the 'happy' setting in just thinking about it.
DeleteMary - I always wondered how much people will take when it comes to "security" and other intrusions on the whole experience of moving across the Earth.Apparently, they will take a lot.
DeleteLinda and I were overseas during 911, and we could see the beginning of the end of care-free travel. We got home knowing we would never travel again. That was the plan from the beginning.
There is always so much to explore close by.
Mela - You made me laugh first, then feel peaceful next. 911 was useful for our rulers to begin the crackdown on our freedom of movement. I am surprised how much people will put up with in the name of (the illusion of) safety.
10 days camping is good medicine. It puts everything into perspective.
Not big travelers here. We usually go overnight or for two nights to somewhere not to far away from our home. And usually in our home state. We visit mostly state parks, museums, battlefields. And if we do any shopping (which is very rare) we go to the local thrift stores.
ReplyDeleteLinda
I think close to home will become more and more desirable. So much to see.
DeleteI so agree with this. Yes I have travelled and have enjoyed (mostly) the places I have been fortunate to see. However I have always believed that you cannot escape what ails you and have worked hard to build a simple, frugal low consumer lifestyle that I am happy to live forever. I am as happy in my local village as I am anywhere. Local parks, flowers in my garden, swimming in a nearby river. The JOY I can find on my doorstep beats the frustration, cost and bother of travel.
ReplyDeleteThat is it. I can not imagine any other way.
DeleteWe have also enjoyed international travel, but the plan was always to spend a year overseas, then be done. Finished, never to fly again.
Now we are finding contentment in the discoveries one makes while witnessing the same locality over time. It has been enjoyable, inexpensive, and low stress.