We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world…And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again — to slow time down and get taken in, and fall in love once more. Pico Iyer
I think about Pico Iyer’s
article when I travel to other countries, but a recent trip to Nashville,
Tennessee brought this passage to mind again. I don’t have to go to Spain or Ireland to
fall in love. Walking down
Broadway Street in Nashville, passing bar after bar, and music coming out of
every one of them, felt like I was in another country. Really, I guess it was just another culture. I
know that Broadway is at once a tourist trap and a place where musicians come
to perform and dream.
I wish I was good enough to write
about love in a way that expresses the depth of what I mean. We humans are, at some level, a mystery to each
other. On some level, I am even a mystery
to myself. But there is something about sharing an experience with a crowd of people that can make my heart expand. I am myself, and I am this community of
people. It’s just sweet. And maybe, on some level, I carry this expanded identity with me when I come home. Even in mundane places.
My favorite Nashville street musicians.
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