Day #4 of Vacation Week at The Napkin Dad Daily

But isn’t this against the whole idea of traveling? That is that you open your mind and allow whatever is really there to come through, instead of creating a vacation of photo ops and prepackaged tours, right?
Yes, that is true, the traveler does need to be open. But the traveler also needs to understand that what is going on when they travel is in their head.  They benefit from being able to provide themselves and others a story of their travels and to do that they must be able to create a narrative. Not just a story of ‘I did this then I did that’, but a story that creates itself as you experience it.  The aromas you notice as you walk, the look of the sky as the sun goes down, the feeling of the humidity or dryness in the air.  You experience your world with awareness is the idea.  You notice and remember.

Drawing and commentary © Marty Coleman

“Every perfect traveler always creates the country where he travels.” –  Nikos Kazantzakis, 1883-1957, Greek writer and philosopher. Author of ‘Zorba the Greek’.