"Before my imprisonment, I knew, the journey would have meant nothing to me. I would not even have needed to travel." - Dream (in Sandman Volume 1 - Preludes and Nocturnes, by Neil Gaiman)
Well, that would have been one journey I wouldn't have wanted to make in the first place. A journey that would not mean anything is not a journey at all.
The purpose of the journey - whether a trip from a place to another, or the journey of your life from a time to another - is to discover. Not necessarily what exists out there in the world, but what exists within you. To gaze in and around, wonder, question, experiment, discard, retain and discover.
It's not about how high and mighty are the mountains outside, but how high and lofty are your dreams, and ambitions. It's not about how wide and green are the plains outside, but how wide and fertile is your imagination. It's not about what lies beneath the seas so deep, but what lies within you. The hopes, the fears, the regrets, the dreams that have been buried inside over time and dare not peek outside until the mind feels safe or bewildered - as in the arms of someone new yet familiar - a state, a place, a person you came across on a journey.
A great travelogue, in my opinion, will also be a great biography - a discovery of a man during an exploration of space and time. Very often, people start rambling about their trips abroad and keep talking about what they saw, what they did and I find myself desiring to interrupt them and ask them - but what did you find, what did you learn, how did the journey change you, did the journey mean anything to you?
Did you find yourself? Did you discover a part of your soul that you did know existed? Did you find your heart expanded beyond the capacity of a deep breath? Did you find your mind stretched beyond imagination, yet not hurt, only engulfed with possibilities? Did you see that? Did you? That deep, deep, deep down inside - we are all the same - tiny bundles of hopes and dreams, despairs and regrets floating about aimlessly in the vast expanse of space and time, searching for something we already possess.
