The journey

Last year, I went with my girlfriend on a snowmobile trip on the Cascade Mountains in Washington. As these machines can top 40 mph on snow, we had a guide with us to teach us how to operate them and lead our way through the woods and narrow roads up to the summit.

After testing the limits of my snowmobile, I started driving a bit slower so that I could enjoy the scenery and make the most out of the three hours that we booked. My behavior did not please our guide so much, and she kept signaling me to keep up with her 35 mph speed and not lag behind. She was starting to get stressed out when I stopped her halfway through our ascent:

- "Why are you in such a hurry?", I asked

- "Because we need to reach snow cone (the peak) and return before your three hours expire", she answered, "and with this speed, we may not make it".

- "Why do we need to reach the top?", I asked

- "Because this is the goal of our trip. This is what you paid for!", she answered impatiently.

- "I don't think so," I said, " We paid to have fun. The goal of this trip for us, is to have fun. For me, to have fun is to enjoy everything around me while I am riding the snow mobile. That's the goal of my trip. A possible outcome might be reaching the top, but we'll probably spend few minutes there to head our way back as fast as we came!", I added.

For the rest of our trip, we went at a speed that allowed us to enjoy the scenery and the ride, and we ended up reaching the snow cone, which was almost deserted, and made it on time back before our time expired.

This incident made me reflect on life, and how many of us, including myself, are oftentimes in a hurry to get to the top, wherever this may be, and forget that the whole purpose is to enjoy the journey itself, since this is what lasts the longest. It might be actually a frustration if one reaches the top so fast, since they would be missing the most enjoyable part of the process: the journey.

To make it simple, imagine reading a book where a map leads to the treasure in the first chapter, or watching a movie where the climax happens after 15 minutes. How frustrating would that be?

Well, someone out there wants to enjoy watching our journey, and what we make out of it, so better make it enjoyable, exciting and worth living :)

No one summed up this concept better than Kavafis, and here it is in his own words

As you set out for Ithaca
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon - don't be afraid of them:
you' ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbours you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind -
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaca always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.
Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaca won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.