wanderlust |ˈwändərˌləst|
noun
a strong desire to travel: a man consumed by wanderlust.
First of all, shout out to
United Airlines. After flying Southwest
and American Airlines every month for the past year, I feel like I upgraded
from the Flintstone mobile to a Rolls Royce.
Comfy seats? Adequate legroom? Personal monitors? Check. Check.
Check. Fly the friendly skies
indeed. Give me a High Life and a hot
dog and my vacation is complete at 35,000 feet.
Speaking of personal monitors and
air travel, though, I’ve been watching a trailer on loop for that Ben Stiller
masterpiece The Secret Life of Walter
Mitty. I’ll ignore the irony of
making a 100 million dollar[i] movie
about a man’s “secret” life (not so secret now, eh Walter?), and I’ll
concentrate on what I’ve gleaned to be the central conceit of the film, at
least based on the trailer. Basically,
Mr. Mitty hates his boring life. He
never does anything out of the ordinary, and lacks the courage to do anything
exceptional, including simply asking a woman out for a cocktail. However, some sort of hallucination man
waving to him in a poster just unleashes his imagination. Soon he is scaling Alpine peaks, leaping from
helicopters into turbulent seas, battling a shark with a briefcase, and playing
soccer with underage children in a third-world county.
Set this montage to “Viva La Vida”
or some Explosions in the Sky, and even I will feel a stirring down in my
soul. A feeling that I should get off my
keister and go out and experience life: scream into the Grand Canyon, learn to
play the sitar on some beautiful rug in India, tug the tail of the tiger, ask
that vexing vixen out on date. You know the deal;
Go. Do.[ii] Heck,
even the movie poster for Mitty is
ol’ Ben sitting crosslegged on wing of an airplane at 35,000 feet. The message is clear – Get out there! Travel!
Don’t be scared to see and do things you wouldn’t otherwise! Life is short!
It’s not the number of breaths you take but the breaths that take your life
away yada yada…
What’s the deal with wanderlust? Why do we have such an innate desire to
travel? The simple answer is to see new
things. After all, it is no secret that
the human eye craves novelty. The
somewhat deeper answer is that we are tired of our daily routine.[iii] Both are true to a certain (and certainly
large) extent.
Many people are not happy with their lives.[iv] Many
people want to see spectacular things.
In the age of twitter and twenty-four hour news coverage, many people
suffer from information overload. I’m
supposed to feel more connected. This
morning, I listened to Mike and Mike on ESPN radio and heard them discuss the
officiating in last night’s Clippers-Thunder game. I switched stations and listened to Memphis
radio dynamos Drake and Zeke discuss racist comments made at a school board
meeting. I got on twitter and saw a map
of what North American will look like if the sea level rises ten feet. I read a review by the Economist of Godzilla that said it was terrible and
was so bummed out that I went to Flixster and watched all the trailers again
because I want to see it at midnight (the 85% guaranteed fresh on Rotten
Tomatoes reassures me). I saw a picture
of the new largest outdoor chandelier (how soon until the next largest outdoor
chandelier?) Just today, I’ve read about
the wildfires in Southern California, why a female editor of the New York Times has was possibly fired
for asking for equal pay, and what Dolly Parton thinks about a too-much-naked
Miley Cyrus spitting water on her audience members.
Right now, in May of 2014, citizens
of Earth are more connected than they have ever been. That castle on a mountaintop in Germany is
closer than ever before. Those hot
springs in Iceland are as inviting as ever.
That cruise you have been dreaming of is only a click away.[v] It
doesn’t take much to climb out on that wing, find your inner Ghandi, and see
the world like Mr. Mitty. I think this
is a good thing.[vi] The best part of watching Mr. Mitty doing all
of these things in this trailer is that (if you have the means) all of it is
possible. YOU can destroy your Jos. A.
Bank suit by wearing it while diving into the ocean saltwater because you
really don’t care. YOU can tap your
inner Pele, turn around someone not wearing cleats, and assist in the
game-winning goal as the sun sets majestically in the background. YOU can do what Quint could only do once, and
get the better of the shark. YOU can get
all inspired and write your Leaves of
Grass.
Listen, I just looked to my right
out of a very small airplane window and saw a jet in the distance zooming in
the opposite direction. I can still see
the contrails against the setting sun, and as I type this, I feel like it’s the
coolest thing I’ve ever seen.[vii] Since I started this post, the stewardesses
have passed out their beverages, the baby in the back has screamed itself to
sleep, and woman in front of me has reclined her seat enough to make me regret
typing the first paragraph.[viii] I’ve still got an hour to go before I
land. One of the first things I’ll do
when I land is check my twitter. Why? Because I want to feel connected. Maybe I should learn a lesson from this
endlessly looping Walter Mitty, and climb out on the wing to my left. Not because I need to escape[ix] and not
because my life is dull, but because I’d rather feel connected through personal
experience. I think in the future, a lot
more value will be placed on seeing something firsthand, rather than seeing it
on some glowing rectangular screen.
[i]
This is terrible, because I’ve taught language arts for three years, but how
the heck to you write “100 million dollar”? Is it “100,000,000 dollar” or
“$100,000,000” or “$100 million” or even “$100 million dollar”? I guess this is
something I should know if I’m going to be keeping a blog.
[ii]
You're GD Right I just used a colon and semicolon correctly in consecutive
sentences. Like I said, language arts
teacher for three years.
[iii]
Personally, I love feeling like an astronaut eating some vital, nutrient laden
paste every morning when I enjoy my greek yogurt, but I realize I’m probably
the exception.
[iv]
Not me. (Am I overdoing it with the footnotes? Sorry. Wait. A note within a
footnote? Inception Footnote!).
[v] I,
for one, am inclined to avoid the Carnival Cruise Caribbean sh**-shower, but
that’s just like, my opinion, man.
[vi] The man sitting next to me
is apparently happy giggling to himself while watching We’re the Millers on his
iPad.
[vii]
HOLYSMOKES Not making that up that was awesome!!!!!
[viii]
What is it about air
travel that makes 75% of people on board the plane fall asleep within fifteen
minutes? Finally, someone else is in
charge of my well-being. Take me to Houston. No, I don’t need a beverage. You’re charging for mini-pretzels? My life is
too stressful – let me escape for a little in this locked and upright
position.
[ix] I
don’t know where else to include this, but the woman in the seat in front of me
rocks back and forth more than Flipper.
Jeez. I’m getting crushed repeatedly.
C’mon!
