{"id":5180,"date":"2016-06-23T16:30:41","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T22:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=5180"},"modified":"2016-06-23T19:18:59","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T01:18:59","slug":"shut-up-and-go-somewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2016\/06\/shut-up-and-go-somewhere.html","title":{"rendered":"Go Somewhere While You Still Can"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

There\u2019s an article going around Facebook titled Your Obsession With Travel Sure Feels Classist To Me<\/a> by Katherine DM Clover. It\u2019s short and provocative \u2013 it can be summarized with three quotes.<\/p>\n

no matter how much as we like to pretend that it doesn\u2019t, travel costs actual money. It\u2019s a leisure activity enjoyed largely by the upper classes, and it\u2019s always been that way \u2026<\/p>\n

No one dares to mention that travel is essentially a consumable good under capitalism and, as such, simply isn\u2019t available to many of us \u2026<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t travel much because I\u2019m poor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Let\u2019s start with the obvious. Poor people have fewer options than middle class people, and middle class people have fewer options than rich people. Poor people who \u201cpass\u201d for middle class<\/a> are often subjected to assumptions and questions that can be embarrassing, as the writer describes. In a society that valued making sure everyone has enough over maximizing \u201copportunity\u201d for a few to become incredibly rich, this class-driven embarrassment would be greatly diminished. But we don\u2019t live in that kind of society, so I sympathize with the writer\u2026 up to a point.<\/p>\n

\"Mexico<\/a>
Mexico 2008, not Florida 1984<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have only two regrets from all my years of schooling. One is never learning a second language. The other is never going to Florida for Spring Break. Now, I imagine those of you who know me in person are laughing right now. I\u2019m not exactly a drunken debauchery kind of guy, and I was even less so in my college years. Spring Break in the 80s wasn\u2019t the MTV porn you see today, but it\u2019s always been about sun, sex, and alcohol. I\u2019ve never been a sun worshipper, and I knew the odds of me hooking up with some hot girl from another state were impossibly long. But I still wanted to go \u2013 I just didn\u2019t have the money.<\/p>\n

Never mind the fact that other people who had a lot less money managed to go. Never mind the fact that my senior year, I did have the money. But Tennessee Tech\u2019s Spring Break was only five days that year, and I didn\u2019t want to spend half my break on the road and go back to classes exhausted.<\/p>\n

Even now I still regret that I didn\u2019t go at least once. It wouldn\u2019t have been an MTV-worthy experience, but it would have been memorable. But now I understand that while I wanted to go to Florida for Spring Break, I didn\u2019t really really want to go. I preferred more restaurants and less cooking for myself the rest of the quarter. My senior year I preferred five days unwinding and resting up for the push to graduation. \u201cI can\u2019t afford it\u201d was an excuse.<\/p>\n

After I started working a professional job and making decent money, I still complained that I couldn\u2019t afford to travel. My friends (well, some of my friends) were taking cruises and going to Europe and going all kinds of places I wanted to go. I said I couldn\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n

What I was really saying was that I couldn\u2019t afford to travel like my friends with more money AND live the way I wanted to live the rest of the year. I could have traveled at a lower level of accommodations: drive instead of fly, motels instead of resorts, more museums and fewer expensive shows. Or I could have lived more cheaply the rest of the year. I chose to do neither, and I genuinely regret it.<\/p>\n

I made my first trip to Ireland and to Newgrange<\/a> in 2014. While at the Br\u00fa na B\u00f3inne Visitors Centre, I saw the box where you could put your name for a chance to be inside Newgrange on Winter Solstice<\/a> morning. Each year about 30,000 people enter the drawing \u2013 50 are chosen. I didn\u2019t put my name in the box. Even if my name was selected, I couldn\u2019t afford a second trip to Ireland nine months later.<\/p>\n

\"04<\/a>
Newgrange<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rhyd Wildermuth<\/a> also made a trip to Ireland in 2014. Rhyd knows more about poverty<\/a>\u00a0than anyone should know. But he also knows how to travel on a tight budget. Rhyd and I didn\u2019t share our financial reports, but I\u2019m confident his trip cost a lot less than mine, even though his was longer and I wasn\u2019t exactly traveling first class.<\/p>\n

Unlike me, Rhyd put his name in the box \u2013 and he was chosen. He made a second trip to Ireland later that year. He even got a clear morning \u2013 he wrote a beautiful account of his experiences for The Wild Hunt<\/a>. He had to do a fundraiser to get much of the money, and some people gave him a hard time for it. They argued that fundraisers should only be used for \u201cserious\u201d things like paying medical bills. Someone who I can\u2019t remember and can\u2019t find wrote a brilliantly profane satire blasting those who think the poor shouldn\u2019t be allowed to have nice things \u2013 including memorable experiences.<\/p>\n

As I write this, Rhyd and Alley Valkyrie<\/a> (who wrote the essay on \u201cpassing\u201d<\/a> I linked to above) are on a multi-week\u00a0pilgrimage to Europe. To say that Rhyd and Alley are not wealthy is a massive understatement. Yet because making this pilgrimage was that important to them, and because they have little overhead (house payments, car payments, etc.) they\u2019re doing something people with far more money can\u2019t \u2013 or won\u2019t \u2013 do.<\/p>\n

I want to be sensitive to Katherine Clover and to other people whose financial situations are difficult. I\u2019ve been told \u201cif you really really want it you\u2019ll find a way\u201d and it pissed me off \u2013 what I heard was \u201cI don\u2019t care and I\u2019m not helping.\u201d I\u2019ve also heard \u201cwell, we all have to make choices\u201d \u2013 as though the poor have the same choices as the rich, or that they wouldn\u2019t be poor if they just made better choices. \u201cBad choices\u201d that are insignificant for the rich can have serious and even fatal consequences for the poor.<\/p>\n

\"Dinosaur<\/a>
Dinosaur Valley<\/a> \u2013 about 90 minutes south of Denton<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the same time, most of the people who are reading, sharing, and commenting on Ms. Clover\u2019s essay have the resources to travel, if they choose. Perhaps you can\u2019t go to the same places and stay in the same hotels as your \u201cfriends\u201d who are turning travel into a form of conspicuous consumption, but you can still visit places that are new and different. You can still get the educational and cultural benefits of travel. You can still get the religious and spiritual benefits of a pilgrimage<\/a>. You can still have experiences you\u2019ll remember for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n

In the article, Ms. Clover complains \u201c[I] am 30 years old, I have never left the continental United States.\u201d When I was 30 years old, my one trip outside the continental U.S. (I don\u2019t count the time my father drove from Detroit to Niagara Falls by way of Hamilton, Ontario just so he could say he\u2019d been to Canada \u2013 though I do appreciate him taking me to see the falls) was a 3-day trip to Freeport, Bahamas. It was an off-peak, low-budget, package deal \u2013 cheap enough I couldn\u2019t make excuses for not going. But I enjoyed it, and I made up for some of my Spring Break regret by getting incredibly drunk on a beach. Thankfully, I had a wife and four friends to tell me to lower my voice before I got us kicked out of Burger King.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>
the Rollright Stones \u2013 England \u2013 2007<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I took my first trip to Las Vegas at 34, my first Caribbean cruise at 37, and my first vacation to Europe at 45. I still haven\u2019t been to Hawaii, Australia, or anywhere in Asia except for Turkey<\/a> \u2013 which isn\u2019t what most people mean when they say Asia. I can\u2019t find the source, but I seem to recall those ages are near the statistical mean for Americans.<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t give up hope, Ms. Clover. You\u2019ve got plenty of time left to do some of those big trips. Meanwhile, there are a lot of cool places in this country that are worth visiting, and some of them are almost certainly within driving distance for you \u2013 or not too far off a bus route. I wish I had done some of that kind of traveling in my 20s and early 30s. I can still go to those places, but I can\u2019t get those years back.<\/p>\n

So if you\u2019re telling yourself you can\u2019t afford to travel, my suggestion is to shut up and go somewhere. Don\u2019t do what I did in my 20s and 30s and now regret. Forget the places your rich friends are bragging about that you really can\u2019t afford. Cut back somewhere else and go where \u2013 and how \u2013 you can<\/em> afford to go.<\/p>\n

Or don\u2019t. As much as I enjoy traveling and as much as travel has expanded my life and the lives of so many people, some just aren\u2019t interested in it. If that\u2019s you, it\u2019s OK to say \u201cthanks, but I\u2019d really rather stay home.\u201d If a better house really means that much to you, it\u2019s OK to say \u201cI\u2019d rather put the money into a house.\u201d However much or little money you have from whatever sources are available to you, spend it the way that\u2019s right for you.<\/p>\n

But understand that for a lot of us, that means traveling.<\/p>\n

\"Walden<\/a>
Walden Pond, Concord, Massachusetts<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re telling yourself you can\u2019t afford to travel, my suggestion is to shut up and go somewhere. Forget the places your rich friends are bragging about that you really can\u2019t afford. Cut back somewhere else and go where you can afford to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":5187,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1062,349,1063,346,4,5,438,36],"class_list":["post-5180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","tag-alley-valkyrie","tag-bru-na-boinne","tag-katherine-dm-clover","tag-newgrange","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-rhyd-wildermuth","tag-travel-2"],"yoast_head":"\nGo Somewhere While You Still Can<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you\u2019re telling yourself you can\u2019t afford to travel, my suggestion is to shut up and go somewhere. 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