After saving Middle Earth by destroying The One Ring, Frodo and Sam proudly returned back to Shire, their homeland. When they returned, everything was the same. But most of all, nobody cared about their journey and the fact that they saved the world.
The old man they passed on their way home was still grumpy. People in the pub were still talking about the same things and drinking the same beer.
If that happened to Frodo and Sam after saving the world and having an amazing journey, why should it be different for someone who returns home after traveling for a few months and doesn’t even save the world?
After seeing this scene in the Lord of the Rings, just before I left the USA, I was actually prepared for it. I prepared myself for people just not caring about your travels and accepting it as it is. People have their own lives to deal with. Some ask more, some less. Some just want you to return back to "normal" life and stop dreaming.
In the end, we travel for ourselves and not for others and some stories are better left untold. It’s an inner journey more than anything. It’s also not so much of an escape as Erin mentioned in my last post’s comment if you work and travel at the same time.
I think for those of us who are traveling longer-term we are seeking out understanding, and not looking for an escape like most tourists are. -
If you go on a vacation, it’s much easier for people to ask appropriate questions and easier for you to actually explain parts of it. It’s not the easiest to explain the past 6 months of your life.
Travel and tell no one, says Kahlil Gibran. I didn’t quite do that as I shared on social media and wrote this Substack about my travels. I think after writing about my experiences here, I have less of a tendency to share them in person. I only want to share them with people who are deeply curious and maybe want to go on such a trip themselves. But if I see that they’re just asking because it’s right to ask, then I really don’t want to bother and I stick with some simple answers.
Travel storytelling was a common practice in tribes already thousands of years ago. In fact, storytelling was an important means of communication and transmission of knowledge in ancient societies, as they did not have a written language to record or transmit their stories to others. As travel wasn’t so accessible to everyone, travelers and elders were the main storytellers.
The elders of the tribe would gather around a fire or in a communal gathering place and share stories of their travels and adventures. These stories would often be about journeys to distant lands, encounters with strange and exotic people, and the discovery of new resources and ways of living.
Travel storytelling served a practical purpose. It allowed people to learn about other cultures, traditions, and ways of living, which could help them survive and thrive in their own environment.
Furthermore, travel storytelling often had a moral or spiritual dimension. The stories would convey important lessons about courage, wisdom, and respect for nature, and would often be used to reinforce the values and beliefs of the tribe.
Does travel storytelling still have a practical purpose? In some sense it has. People go listen to travelers to get inspired or gain practical tips on how they can embark on such journeys themselves.
Obviously, we are not in tribes anymore and we know, at least on the surface, much about other cultures and nations without even leaving our hometown. With this, travel storytelling and the way it’s presented is changing.
Maybe we need to present our travels in VR or AR to let the listeners have more immersive experiences. Maybe it needs to be in a short Tik Tok format or we need to gamify it. These immersive experiences might become the new campfires and the way we learn and understand different cultures.
Maybe Frodo and Sam were just not good storytellers and everyone ignored them because of that. Even saving the world requires a good story backing it up.
With more and more people traveling and knowing about other places, becoming globally connected, the more it’s important to take every journey as a journey for yourself.
This past week, ever since I returned back home, I honestly didn’t even have the energy to create good travel stories (so I understand Frodo & Sam). It has been nothing but strange for me. Suddenly, everything feels very basic. Everyone around me going about their daily business. How long does it take to get used to it? Should I even get used to it? Do movies about travel help? Asking for a friend.