The Illusion of Movement
There is a peculiar dreamlike state to travel that I haven't experienced in any other, well, experience that I've had in life. When I am somewhere other than home, I find myself having out of body experiences, almost watching myself experience the journey.
It is not an unpleasant feeling.
The dreamlike nature of the experience is in fact a positive for me, because it's not similar to one of those dreams that you barely remember. Rather, it is typically like one of those hyperreal dreams of the sort that when you wake up you're not sure if you're still dreaming or not and you remember ever single detail of the dream in vivid detail.
It makes the memories of a trip shine with a soft glow non unlike that which surrounds what people remember as "the good old days", whenever the hell that was. The funny thing is the parts of a trip that go wrong (airport delays, traffic jams, bad meals etc.) are not remembered with that glow. It's like the camera in my subconscious switches from film to video to remember the crap.
Do I have a theory as to why that is?
As far as I know, it may be something totally unique to me. At the very least I've never heard anyone else talk about it. Could be I need something different or interesting to be fully present in a moment and being in a place other than home brings that out. Or it could be that I realize the clock is running and there are so many places I want to see and so many places I will get to see just once so I want to absorb every sensory perception of a place. Even a place as familiar as my home away from home 400 miles north of where I own property.
It is not an unpleasant feeling.
The dreamlike nature of the experience is in fact a positive for me, because it's not similar to one of those dreams that you barely remember. Rather, it is typically like one of those hyperreal dreams of the sort that when you wake up you're not sure if you're still dreaming or not and you remember ever single detail of the dream in vivid detail.
It makes the memories of a trip shine with a soft glow non unlike that which surrounds what people remember as "the good old days", whenever the hell that was. The funny thing is the parts of a trip that go wrong (airport delays, traffic jams, bad meals etc.) are not remembered with that glow. It's like the camera in my subconscious switches from film to video to remember the crap.
Do I have a theory as to why that is?No.
Do I think it is a universal experience?
No.
As far as I know, it may be something totally unique to me. At the very least I've never heard anyone else talk about it. Could be I need something different or interesting to be fully present in a moment and being in a place other than home brings that out. Or it could be that I realize the clock is running and there are so many places I want to see and so many places I will get to see just once so I want to absorb every sensory perception of a place. Even a place as familiar as my home away from home 400 miles north of where I own property.I miss my cats and the rest of my family when I'm away, but I hope I keep having these dreams for a long, long time. I hope I can keep doing it for as long as I'm rattling around in this rental form. I hope I can keep writing about it in a way that maybe makes more sense than this, even though this to me is the most sensible travel essay I've ever written.
Maybe next time I'll supply "25 random places I've been". It seems to be what the youngsters are into nowadays.
Comments