| I’m very fortunate to have had the opportunities to see so much of the world. But I’m often aware that I have sharper, fonder memories of distant continents than the place I actually spend almost all of my life: home. I’ve been trying to address that problem.
Whilst consciously paying closer attention to my local map for a year, I fell into conversation with an elderly man in a town close to my own.
‘It’s been forty-odd years since I moved into the area,’ he told me.
‘Where did you come here from?’ I asked, assuming that he must previously have lived a fair distance away.
‘Only from town, just a couple of miles, you know. I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly a world traveller.’
I smiled at that and asked,
‘You must like it here to have stayed so long?’
‘It’s all right, mate. Sometimes I think it’s time to move on. But there’s all the upheaval. And it’s what you know, right? People get used to a place. It’s home, isn’t it?’
I’ve zoomed around the world and ignored my neighbourhood. He had stayed put and knew this place so well. Both of us living our lives and making our choices.
What strikes me today is that my memories of my Tanzanian breakfast or hiding from the Peruvian rain were very local memories – just not my local. The ‘Earthrise’ photograph, all those continents and countries shrunk down to a tiny blue marble in the darkness, is made up of billions of people’s local lives and experiences.
Paul Salopek has been walking across the globe for more than a decade, a classic example of the sort of bonkersly persistent adventures that I love. But one of the main objective’s of Paul’s journey is to ‘engage with the major stories of our time by walking alongside the populations who inhabit such headlines every day.’ He is learning about the world (and teaching us) by listening to the villagers, traders, farmers he meets, those who’ve been in their area for forty-odd years and are worth listening to.
Another example of the differences and similarites between exploring the world and exploring your home is the American adventurer Matt Green. He walked 3000 miles across the USA, from sea to shining sea. A fine adventure, but small compared to what came next. I’ve become interested in considering the finite nature of my own big journeys, that you head out into the world, do something mad and massive, but then it’s all over and you come home with nothing but boring stories of your glory days.
Matt Green took a different approach, returning to his home in New York and deciding to walk every single street in the city. Without leaving home he is now immersed in an 8,000 mile journey, an exploration with a potential lifetime’s worth of memories and discoveries.
I can’t help but feel he will have a deeper connection with his local communities than those he briefly touched when crossing the continent. Perhaps those of us love extensive global travel can gain a different perspective through Paul and Matt’s examples and satisfy our wanderlust in more sustainable ways. Local travel is cheaper and simpler, so you can do it more often. Your money supports local businesses and the economy. It helps build stronger relationships within your community, fostering a sense of belonging.
Paul and Matt’s walks inspire me to explore my own surroundings more, documenting them to bring attention to its problems and finding beauty in everyday surroundings. ‘It’s home, isn’t it?’
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