Ongoing cogitations about the advantages of traveling: Perhaps the greatest advantage here is that in taking you out of the rut of the wonderful and constricting structure of your life, it reminds you of your mortality. There is exciting and frightening (notice dualities!) danger in every adventure, and it is the frightening part that is the most fruitful. Each time I leave for India, or fly anywhere, for that matter, I am reminded of plane crashes, hijackings. This is partly what makes me anxious before traveling, but it also reminds me of the inevitable (if not now, it is to come; if it is not to come, it is now. Readiness (or is it Ripeness?) is all, as Hamlet says). When I returned to America in Oct last year, I heard that our reclusive neighbor, Larry, had passed away. He lived alone, no one knew he had died for many days, I am told. He had no wife, no children, no friends, and the only indication of his existence was several cartons of empty wine bottles on each garbage day. (All the lonely people, where do they all come from? as the Beatles say). But Larry had the foresight to leave his multi-million dollar home to the San Diego zoo! That pleases me greatly!
The above example was a digression and had nothing to do with traveling, I know, but it does have to do with dying, which was what I was speaking about. Perhaps my point was that we are all travelers on this planet and we need to get our affairs in order periodically. So, in addition to all the other things I need to do before going away for 7 months is the task of making a will. I wouldn't want the state to get everything I own.
I am babbling and must get back to my tasks!
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