Everywhere to Call Home

If time or money were no object, what would you rather be doing?

Occasionally, I like to ask this question because I find that it reveals a person's deeper desires, hopes, and dreams. I like to see the light switch flick on and their smiles broaden as, for a glimmer of a moment, they give voice to those hidden dreams. When I've asked, I've always enjoyed the answer.

To answer this question myself, I always thought in such simplistic terms: "travel" or "art studio." I thought, if time or money were no object, I would travel the world and paint and write and live happily for the rest of my life. But not too long ago, I realized that I've never answered this question in its fullness. For I had only considered the money part of it. What is the most expensive (and somewhat frivolous) thing I desire to do? Travel of course (bien sûr!). Next most expensive thing: a personal art studio.

But the more I think on it, the more I realize that this is not exactly it. I do not want to travel the world merely as a tourist. As Maike expressed it so profoundly this summer, 

"I just feel like I'm intruding on other people's memories, if that makes sense. I've heard so much about Mexico, and had so many friends from here, that I feel like I'm surrounded by their past, and everytime I see people lounging around on street corners I think of my friends and their families and like I am intruding on some private thing... It's been great, and I'm so glad to be here, but I've also recognized this isn't the kind of trip I want to save my money for when I'm older," 

Tourism is not what I want. No, I want to know peoples and cultures intimately. And what does this require? Time. And enormous amounts of it. Money too, yes. But more than that it requires an infinite amount of time to become so acquainted with not just one people, but many. Therefore, I revise my earlier wish--if time or money were no object, I would travel, yes, but more importantly, I would stay. I would stay with one people for hours, days, months, years--as long as it took to know and understand and love them, and then I would move on to the next place--a nomad with no permanent resting place, but everywhere to call home.