Why do we travel? Ostensibly an act of leisure, travel finds us
thrusting ourselves into jets flying miles above the earth, only to
endure dislocations of time and space, foods and languages foreign
to our body and mind, and encounters with strangers on whom we must
suddenly depend. Travel is not merely a break from routine; it is
its antithesis, a voluntary trading in of the security one feels at
home for unpredictability and confusion. In "Bewildered Travel"
Frederick Ruf argues that this confusion, which we might think of
simply as a necessary evil, is in fact the very thing we are
seeking when we leave home.
Ruf relates this quest for confusion to our religious behavior.
Citing William James, who defined the religious as what enables us
to "front life," Ruf contends that the search for bewilderment
allows us to point our craft into the wind and sail headlong into
the storm rather than flee from it. This view challenges the
Eliadean tradition that stresses religious ritual as a shield
against the world's chaos. Ruf sees our departures from the
familiar as a crucial component in a spiritual life, reminding us
of the central role of pilgrimage in religion.
In addition to his own revealing experiences as a traveler, Ruf
presents the reader with the journeys of a large and diverse
assortment of notable Americans, including Henry Miller, Paul
Bowles, Mark Twain, Mary Oliver, and Walt Whitman. These accounts
take us from the Middle East to the Philippines, India to
Nicaragua, Mexico to Morocco--and, in one threatening instance,
simply to the edge of the author's own neighborhood. "What gives
value to travel is fear," wrote Camus. This book illustrates the
truth of that statement.
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