The Art of Travel
Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship or train… Of all the modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought: the views have none of the potential monotony of those on a ship or a plane, they move fast enough for us not to get exasperated but slowly enough for us to identify objects. ..
At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves – that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us. It is not necessarily at home that we best encounter our true selves. The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestic setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.
Alain de Botton, The Art of Travel, 57-59
Edward Hopper, Compartment c, Car 293, 1938
2 Responses to “The Art of Travel”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Very thought-provoking. Is that a Hopper painting?
Trains are great, I’ve met several wonderful people on train journeys.