Our most important transitions are written into our journeys

Vagablogging :: Rolf Potts Vagabonding Blog

“Travel is as familiar as the experience of the body, the wind, the earth, and this is why at all times and in all places it is a source of reference, a ground of symbols and metaphors, a resource of signification. The anthropologist and historian of religions Mircea Eliade laments the absence of genuine ritual of initiation in modern life and suggests that “modern man has lost all sense of traditional initiation.” But perhaps it is only that the reality of passage has replaced the ritual, and the most important transitions we experience are written into our journeys, which make of our lives a procession and spectacle more engrossing and transforming than any ritual could possibly be.”

–Eric J. Leed, The Mind of the Traveler: From Gilgamesh to Global Tourism (1991)

Original article can be found here: Our most important transitions are written into our journeys