Inspiration
“As he stared blankly into the pale fluorescence of the empty computer screen, he began to feel the tug of that weary thought once more. That he was sinking into a life which he never wished for nor planned. That in all the hours of all the nights that he did not quite feel ready to forge his master plan, there had been his life, played out by circumstance and expectation. Not instead by will and by passion.”
That rather glum sounding paragraph was part of a slightly longer piece of writing that, 6 years ago, made me swallow my fear and head off to cycle Italy. This time around it was watching this 4 minute film by Erik Wernquist narrated by Carl Sagan.
It is well worth a watch, because it explains a great view point on what makes us become dissatisfied with the lives we have found ourselves living, seeking out adventure in new lands. But also because Carl Sagan… what a legend.
Survival vs Living
As I laid in the peaceful Park Square digesting my lunch (and the fact I’d just hit send on the email that would lead inexorably to all of this adventure and change), I listened to Carl’s words. He suggests we have been meticulously crafted by natural selection to traverse inhospitable lands. That we do this in order to preempt the arrival of long winters and failing crops. A simple survival mechanism.
It was clear to me as I watched the ants leave the safety of their subterranean world and strike out in the dangers above, Carl Sagan made a good point. But I think he might have conceded that the “romance we invest in far off lands” is more than just a mechanism. “The incessant itch for things remote” described by Herman Melville in Moby Dick, was for more than just survival alone.
He did not just need to sail forbidden seas. He loved to.