Road to Dharmasala

The Dalai Lama will be returning to Emory in just over a year. I'm hoping that when he comes, there may be an opportunity to participate in a 'creativity conversation' with him. Between now and then, I'm intending to go on a pilgrimmage. It will have several different dimensions, including perhaps an actual visit to Dharmasala, India, his home while in exile.

I've been thinking about this for a while. And it feels that this path for me has been pre-determined--by fate? by circumstances? by conditions? It's hard to know except that it feels inexorable, which is not the right word. Nonetheless it feels that way to me.

Probably I mean inevitable.

Learn more about the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative here.

"Wander Aimlessly About"

A recent issue of The Smithsonian magazine is devoted to travel writing. In the introduction to this section, Jam Morris reminds us:

"When in 1922, the novelist E.M. forster set out to write a guidebook to the Egyptian city of Alexandria, his most memorable advice was 'to wander aimlessly about.' In that one famous phrase, he was admitting that the subjective means more than the objective."

Writing about travel, Morris further asserts, requires: "the alliance of knowledge and sensation, nature and intellect, sight and interpretation, instinct and logic."

I frequently am disappointed with myself when I visit a new place that I haven't done more research in preparation for the trip and that I haven't pursued a rigorous itinerary. However, I find I'm even more disappointed if I'm overly prepared and intentional. My approach to travel is pretty consistent with my primary philosophy of life: drift and intention. Only by allowing oneself to drift, it seems to me, can real intentionality become revealed.

True Journeys

I'm aware that my blog of late has been primarily a place to post photographs from various ramblings, near and far. This is not such a bad thing as the photographs serve to invoke something of the memories and the experience of such ramblings. However, I really want more from this experience. And so, for now, while there's a lull in my recently intense travel schedule, I'll try to remember to post a bit of commentary: the purpose of which is to affirm that true journeys involve the inner life.

End of Summer

Wonders to Behold:

A trip to L.A. followed by a visit in Florida: from the Getty Museum to the Grapefruit Spa.