Puno, Peru
My white legs: They stand out in the minibus of darker-colored ladinos and locals. How fat and strong they are! That’s why Nature gave me strong legs: For one day I would travel around the world with them! But why weak arms? Now I know: They always get all the help they ask for. I never carry my suitcase from one place to another on my own – it’s too heavy. There are always people around to help me. However, nobody can walk on my behalf.
Legs: the symbol of my solitude, my individual path, my uniqueness.
Arms: the symbol of togetherness, my connection to others, my belonging to the human race.
My legs make me who I am; they create my solitary path. My arms make me who I belong to; they connect me to the world.
My legs are the symbol of my strength and independent spirit. My arms are the symbol of my weakness and my dependent nature.
I look at my legs and see them marching onwards with the discipline of a soldier. I look at my arms and see them opening outwards, inviting all others to join me on the journey. I need my legs so that I may move on; I need my arms so that I may not forget that we all move on.
I use my arms, together with those offered by others, to load my suitcases onto the buses, taxis, and airplanes so that my legs can then take charge and move on. I begin, like in life itself, in togetherness, but I move in solitude. Then, I again end in togetherness, for I have to unload all my accumulated knowledge and experiences with the help of others, in order to count them as gains. After this, a new journey, a fresh cycle will start again.
Solitude and togetherness are intertwined. One cannot exist without the other. The more we find our own path in solitude, the more we connect to others when they appear in our lives – and they always do. Solitude is the prerequisite for true, authentic togetherness. For unless we discover ourselves, we cannot truly relate to others in depth.
Togetherness without solitude is the equivalent of meaninglessly loading and unloading one’s luggage on a stationary bus. Togetherness then becomes an endless, self-repeating, burdensome immobility that feeds on its own need to sustain itself. This is, unfortunately, the commonest form of togetherness that binds many people. However, togetherness immersed in solitude propels itself to its own grander fulfillment. It is like loading the suitcases on the bus and moving on to the next town where some others will help unload. Togetherness then expands, extends, and multiplies, while moving along a never-ending ascending spiral.
Ascent is solitude. Togetherness, the spiral.
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This is an excerpt from my book, Destination Earth – A New Philosophy of Travel by a World-Traveler, now in its second edition, 2019.