Ideas also emerge through interaction with the world.
Jeff Goins says the discipline of traveling to another country disrupts our comfort, educates us in other cultures, and can help us find new ways to solve old problems. That’s curation we can control. Then there are curation opportunities we can’t control.
Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn says of his time in Stalin’s corrective labor camps, “Bless you, prison!” An experience that nearly broke this man granted him a knowledge of how “a human being becomes good or evil.”
His years of forced imprisonment became fields ripe for harvest.
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Chances are you’ll never rot for a decade in a gulag. And most of your experiences won’t kill you or anyone close to you. But if you’ve at least made it to your twenty-first birthday, as Flannery O’Connor was fond of saying, then you’ll have a lifetime of material.
Don’t be afraid of the world. Or the people or circumstances you can’t control. Odd as it seems now, that junk will one day become your creative cache.
Love that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn quote, Demian. It bothered me for a while that the job I picked up and moved away for wasn’t turning out to be my lifelong passion. I’ve realized now that it got me to learn a language and gave me 6+ years of experiences that not many others have had. Definitely glad I did it.
That’s a great response to less than favorable conditions, Mark. I will probably never learn another language, although I’d like to, unless in a situation were I was forced to.
Thanks for this, Demian. It’s easy to forget that travel and experiences are the best source of inspiration. Especially when you work from home.
Who we are is an ever-changing panorama. It’s the place from which we write, whenever we write. The good stuff and the bad stuff (not to mention the stuff that cannot be labeled) makes us who we are. All that stuff defines our perspective and our voice.
I think that if we would oblige for example students to at least live in another country for a year, there would be much more understanding for other cultures and more respect for eachothers differences. Plus it would enrich people personally as well.
That’s a great suggestion, Ralph.
Retweeting this. Great stuff, man. Keep it up.
Thank you, Christopher. Appreciate that.
Good post, Demian. And to further what Mia said, I’ve learned to try not to categorize events as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (with *try* definitely being the operative word here).
Nearly every event which I may have deemed disastrous at the time not only offered me an invaluable opportunity for learning and growth, but also brought me to where I am today. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Well said, Penny. Love it.
Loved this. I ski quite a bit, during the winter months in MN. With that, I tend to retreat to places where few live and work. (And even fewer ski, when the temperature outside is -10 and -20 degrees.) What few interactions, in those remote places I do have with the world, I tend to get some tremendous creative inspiration. Or creative “cache” as you call it, Prof. Farnworth. Keep writing, brother, and be encouraged.
Thank you, sir. And I want to come with you to those frigid regions. Sounds sublime.
So absolutely spot on. I spent 13 years in Latin America and can vouch for the positive effects of travel
I need to do more traveling, Jim. 😀 What were you doing in Latin America?