Wisdom of the Road

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There are great lessons to be learned from this backpacker lifestyle. I’m older now, with kids and responsibilities. I travel with 2 carry-ons and 2 checked bags now, rather than the solitary backpack I began with. But, I still travel like a backpacker. I’m not one of those tourists who come for Mai Tais on the beach and a few souvenirs. I don’t spend much money when I travel. I don’t stay in fancy hotels. You see a lot of middle-class Americans living it up in developing countries where their dollars go further, playing at the life of a celebrity or aristocrat for a day. I don’t do that kind of thing. I still like to see how they local people live. I still like to walk barefoot sometimes, to eat with my hands, to take a shower from a bucket. This is where I get my strongest insights.

We found these sayings written on the walls of a Buddhist temple in Dar es Salaam. I found them beautiful. Wisdom is universal. The same sentiments can be found in the Holy Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity or in the Quran and Hadith of the Muslims. I hear some of the same thoughts echoed from really good fitness coaches, even. In following Ras Tafari, I have found that Haile Selassie I utters wisdom like this on every opportune occasion. I value wisdom like this no matter the source.

Health Is The Highest Gain

Contentment Is The Greatest Wealth

Don't Do Evil, Cultivate Good, And Purify Your Mind

Overcome Evil By Good

No Parking 😉

You can see from these pictures of my travel-weary backpack that I have learned a fair few things about the world first-hand myself, and have probably accumulated some wisdom of my own.

I started with this bag when it was totally blank, just an ugly shade of green with some black parts to it. The first flags to go on were the USA, Canada, and Thailand. After that, I slowly added more. For a while, Chelly had her own bag with flag patches on it, but that bag wore out and she lost interest in the flag-patch aesthetic. That’s when I took her flags and added them to my bag as well. So, you will find two Indias, two Thailands (one the Thai army badge), and two Kenyas. Trying to fill space, I put the Greek flag on there 3 times and cut up an old belt to add stripes of Red, Gold, and Green in various places. Even little trinkets were sown to the bag. There was a magic spell that I bought in Laos and some scraps of that made it on there, along with a Tiger Buddha medallion (which has since been shattered in transit). In India, someone gave us a died length of string sacred to Ganesh. That’s sewn on there too. Many of the things I have added to the backpack have disappeared, either removed by thieves or broken off and lost in baggage handling. That’s fine. That was their fate. The thing keeps growing more and more interesting regardless.

Some of the patches represent not just a literal nation’s flag, but another sort of memory of a place. I have the patch of Thai rock band Carabao. I have the patch of Oliver Hammer clothing shop in Sedro-Woolley. There’s a UN patch and an Africa continent patch. I have the Marcus Garvey UNIA flag inscribed with “Blood, People, Land”. These are all powerful mementos for me of strong memories from the road and higher values. Each of these details hold stories of their own.

The more time passes, the more this bag resembles me and the more I resemble the bag.

There's a cliche saying that, "it's not the destination, but the journey that counts." I say, "you are the journey and the journey is you."

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