Timor-Leste
The Others
So what is it that you find while you're traveling? Yourself?
Is it a lost feeling you want to recover or the feeling of being lost?
Something different than what we know? Is it to forget?
What I've found is the drug of connection, of shared experiences. Travelers are atoms bouncing in space, seeking bonds wherever they may find a fit.
There's a tendency in the mind and desire from the soul to discover traces of yourself in other people. Throw in some messy cultural differences, and watch boundaries shake, shiver, and reset. The divide is not so large between us, so long as we maintain respect after each social faux pas, and all can mostly be forgiven.
Everywhere, you can see the people you've known, a savvy entrepreneurial mother working hard to make the most of the boom in tourism, the naughty kid that knows more than most kids his age should, the kid sister excelling in school, the hopeful of the family and the village... You can will yourself to find yourself and the people of your home and past in the present before you.
These “presents” help me learn the most about what I do like, what I don't like in myself, my gifts, my prejudices, my approaches, the ways in which I'm bound to distract and lose myself in others time and time again, and for the moment, I am grateful to be in one place long enough to allow a group of strangers see me fail again and again.
I've met myself recognizing the sadnessess, the triumphs, and heartbreaks others collect, and between us, we share these traumas and pains like breakable glass lanterns that light the night.
I share because that's what's immediate. Sharing has become the boiling water to an instant cup of goodness. The most natural instinct you have as human, before political parties and demarcations polarize the atoms, before generational and cultural biases regulate you, is to share what is left bare, without technology to sink your lonely teeth into.
2014 - My Burmese family, mother, uncles, and brothers.
