If you could go anywhere* — alone — where would you go?
Why?
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If you’ll tell me your answer, I’ll tell you mine.
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Note: You’ve got to answer both parts of the question. No cheating!
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imagine . . .
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Note: You’ve got to answer both parts of the question. No cheating!
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shift 
The back room at my grandparents’ house in Tampa, Florida in the summer of 1987.
You missed the second part of the question: Why?!
That’s where my favorite childhood memories are set. My older cousin and I watched “The Secret City” on a little black and white TV and drew pictures. Good times.
Sounds awesome, Matt. Similar to where I’d go, in some ways.
Sitting in Belmont Park on a hot Saturday in June of 1973 and watch Secretariat win the triple crown and witness that unbelievable performance..
I forgot to say why…… because I didn’t believe it when I saw it the first time.
Wow. I just went and looked at the YouTube clip. You’re right — incredible!! I’m sure I’d love to see that more than once, too. I’ve always loved horses… I actually saw some race while I was in Hong Kong. Race horses are spectacular animals, and Secretariat truly looks to have been one of a kind. Thanks for sharing!! :)
Go within,
the source of all there is.
Bring forth u’r reality,
to birth a new day.
Within me is the source of all there is?? I *do* like the thought of bringing forth my own reality, though…
Oh most definitely! If not you, then who? :D
Well… I’m quite sure I don’t know!
lol, then u’r wiser than most. keep asking these great questions, why? cause it’s all part of life and it’s all important, as we collectively share our experiences. how awesome is that? great post Jess☼
Thank you. I fully agree with Socrates: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Life is all about asking questions, and every day I live, I come up with more…
Tough question for me, Jess. At the moment, I don’t crave to go to a particular physical place. I would want to go to a “place” where I am no longer sick but healthy, though. That’s something money can’t buy…sometimes. A “place” where I feel relaxed and where a million things aren’t running through my mind. A “place” where I see random acts of kindness.
Why? I just want to be happy and want others to be happy. The simple things make me happy :)
I didn’t realize you’d been so unwell lately, Mabel! I’m sorry! I hope you feel better soon. I like your thought of going to a place where you can see random acts of kindness and where people are happy. Pablo Picasso is right: If we can imagine it, it is real. The thing is, it’s up to us as a collective to create it…
Thanks, Jess. Haven’t been feeling all that great since mid-January, but am getting better now which is great. Still this year is a very positive one so far.
You’re so right. Love that line from Pablo Picasso. I think it goes, “Everything you can imagine is real.” Anything is possible if we set our mind to it. But most of the time we can never walk the walk alone.
I also like the idea that the things in our mind, just for being thought, are real. You’ll see in my next post that where I would go is hardly feasible, and yet… I imagined it, didn’t I? So why couldn’t it be?!
Glad you’re beginning to feel a bit better!! :)
For me it is a place and something else, like an energy. A join up. It’s 3 am and I’m sitting in the nose turret of a Lockheed Neptune patrol bomber racing along at 300 knots. I’ve released the mechanism on my seat and pulled myself as far forward as possible into the turret so that I’m nearly surrounded by the clear acrylic. I feel suspended in space with the over reaching sky above lit with the lights a million stars, like diamonds on black velvet, horizon to horizon while the sea below sparkles with their reflection. And for the first time I feel connected and a part of it all. Like I’m an integral piece of all that happens in the universe.
Wow, what an amazing description — I see what you mean — just perfect! I would love to go into space, too, and see that velvet horizon. The glittering night sky has always fascinated me. Seeing the world from above makes me feel so small, but powerful, too. I am one person, but I have the ability to do a lot if I choose.
Thanks for sharing. :)
Alone? On a pilgrimage of my life, starting in Carthage, MO, where I was born and retracing the steps that have brought me to where I am now…
Why? I have a deep desire to understand who I am and how I became him. At least, to the extent that I can ever really do so.
Ahh, yes. Somehow your answer doesn’t surprise me, Vance. Somehow it fits you perfectly, and is perfect. I wish more people would look at themselves in the same way and ask the same questions you do.
I want to continue my journey from within to without….going as far as possible both ways, sometimes returning to the other new-end.
For a literal physical location on Earth, a long fantasy-desire of mine is to retrace, over 2-4 months, Marco Polo’s travels: the Silk Road then his journey back to Venice from the Orient. :-)
Oh, I very much like both of your answers, Professor. Within to without — that is my goal every day. And Marco Polo’s travels would be a dream come true. But tell me why? What fascinates you about his journey in particular?
Jess, I will be MORE than happy to tell you what fascinates me about Marco Polo’s Orient travels! You might regret asking me that question. ;-)
Marco grew up in the heavily dominated Roman Catholic harbor-town of Venice. For untold centuries, the West and Roman Catholic papacy regarded the Middle & Far East as demonic and to be greatly feared. In fact, the RCC papacy felt those people & lands had NOTHING to offer the West other than spiritual ruin. But Marco’s father, uncle, and eventually Marco himself knew otherwise.
The Silk Road to the East (7,000 miles via the Caucasus’, Afghanistan, & the Gobi Desert) and trade with the Orient not only brought about the growth, wealth, and the connecting of two great continents, but perhaps more importantly it brought another Age of Enlightenment — at least to the West. For example, the Chinese had already invented gunpowder centuries earlier, the Middle Eastern & Far Eastern astrologers were much further advanced than most of Europe! The Chinese naval ships were more advanced than their European counter-parts, there’s evidence they found North America 71 yrs before Columbus. Marco and his father & uncle opened up an entirely new lens for Venetians and Europeans to view the world. The great Mongol Emperor Kublai Khan became very fond of Marco and his father Niccolo. Kublai Khan became just as fascinated with the West as the Polos were of the Middle & Far East. The stories and education they shared together formed a deep life-long friendship between Marco and Kublai. When Marco arrived in China at Kublai’s summer palace, Xanadu, its architectural brilliance & aesthetics overwhelmed Marco with awe, as he later described in his memoirs.
Kublai was so impressed with Marco’s trade-savvy demeanor that he employed Marco as a Special Envoy to his Tibetan, Indian, and Burmese provinces. As Marco learned four languages, the Mongolian’s superb communication highways & economic system covering millions of square miles, Marco realized just how far behind Venice and Europe were in comparison. He had much to share with his homeland & continent upon his return!
Returning home by sea, escorting one of Khan’s princess’ for a Persian prince, through Hormuz (Persian Gulf) and up through Turkey, Marco finally reached Venice. Sadly, the papacy and much of the Italian republics riticuled Marco and his tales as fiction, even rought with the Devil. However, that did not stop later explorers such as Columbus to set out & discover new trade routes, new lands, new cultures, and new improved sciences.
Imagine Jess what Marco witnessed in his 23 years of travel there and back and everything in between! I’ve read his book three times and with each read, I’m swept away and never bored.
Does that answer your question Jess!? lol
It sure does! I know what’s on my reading list next… Thanks, Professor!!
If I was alone I would only want to go to you, because that is where I love to be!!
Points for Jon!!!
Ben Rich, the “Father of the Stealth Fighter-Bomber” and former head of Lockheed Skunk Works (the super secret weapons/aircraft division at Lockheed) said something strangely similar just weeks before he died:
“Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do. We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. We now have the technology to take ET home. No, it won’t take someone’s lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars… What we have to do is find out where Einstein went wrong.”
I would travel among the stars.
I can’t imagine a better use of traveling alone to anywhere. I am *fascinated* by the night sky. Absolutely and utterly amazed.
Will you send pictures?
I already did. Tonight, just look up.
back to bed, because today i’m so tired. simple pleasures, Jess. xo tony
simple pleasures are the best, Tony. i do agree… so lovely to hear from you. xo jess
I’d hike the Appalachian Trail alone. God, that would be a powerful experience.
Ooooh, I’d have to agree with you on that one, Jennie. I’m pretty sure words wouldn’t cover it.
I’d go way back in time to witness the first paleolithic burial with grave goods.
Why? To witness that moment when the human mind was blown open.
That would be fascinating to see. But tell me, how do you mean “the human mind was blown open”? I may be showing my ignorance by asking, but I’d rather ask than let a chance to learn something slip by!
No problem. No such thing as dumb questions, just stupid answers :)
Burials with grave goods are generally held to be the onset of religious thought. Tools, water bladders, jewelry, weapons are things only useful to the living. By including them in a grave is the first sign that people had thought of a life distinct from the terrestrial one; a supernal landscape where the dead person had some use for these things. It stands as the beginning of our notions of an afterlife. I’d be utterly fascinated to watch (from the sideline) that event, to see the eyes of the person who made the imaginative leap.
Gotcha. That makes sense. It’s funny because now we think of thoughts like that as having always been in existence, but they had to have started somewhere!
Either Italy or Spain, to soak up the European culture while taking epic solo training rides, possibly through the dolomites in Italy, and enjoying all the wonderful post ride foods.
Oh, yes!! Riding in Europe would be a dream. My dad and his girlfriend did an organized riding trip along the Tour de France route last summer. I was sooooo jealous. And I must say that the BEST food I’ve ever had was in Italy. Too long ago now, sadly. And I’ve always wanted to go to Spain!! Excellent choice, my friend. :)
Your dad and his girlfriend are very lucky. I would prefer to ride the mountain stages of the Giro D’Italia myself. Tougher climbs, Better food (in my opinion) and Nicer people from what I here. (at least when it comes to American tourists.) I would eventually like to be able to say I rode Alpe D’huez at least once. Maybe someday……………
You definitely should. My dad did it, and if he did it, I know I can do it. I think he’s talking about going to Italy the next time he goes… Oh, goodness. All of this is giving me major wanderlust (and cravings for amazing Italian food)!!
Alone in the library, so I can read to my heart’s content.
Oh, that sounds so nice! I wish to the high heavens that I had more time to read. When you read, you go all kinds of other fantastic places, too. ;)
Month-long language immersion course. Either for Chinese to improve to solid intermediate (if we stay in China) or to get a solid grounding in whatever language I might need next.
Sounds like a fantastic use of time alone. I think I’d do something like that, too. Only I’d better make it a few years. ;)
I would just pop some place when I was an early teen and tell myself to listen to people and take it to heart. Then to take your passions and put everything into it.
Why? Well, I know now that to do something big; you can’t give a half effort.
I fully agree, Steve. My problem has always been that I’ve wanted to do a little bit of everything — and it’s not possible to put your everything into everything!!! There just isn’t enough of me to go around. :P
I would like to go to Raratonga, apparently “The pace of life is so relaxed that at night people congregate at the sea wall that skirts the end of the airport’s runway to be “jetblasted” by incoming planes.” and there’s sunshine and white sandy beaches. Why? because I live in a mostly grey sky world and work long hours and really need a holiday!!
Ooooh, that sounds wonderful. A place to add to my “to-see” list, perhaps? There are so many places I want to go! Also, right now a gray sky sounds nice. California needs it.
I’d like to go to a movie theater, watch a sad movie and cry my lungs out.
Why? – It feels nice just to let myself cry for awhile. Afterwards I feel really calmed down. :)
I am curious to know whats your answer to the question. I read through the comments. You haven’t answered it yet. Or have you?
OOOh… Silly me. (face-palm) I didn’t read your post “if i could go anywhere”.
I would like to go back in time19 years ago, when I held my grand daughter for the first time when she was 25 minutes old. The love I had for her was overwhelming. Why?…because I wouldn’t have known how many times my heart would be broken by events that have occurred in her life so far.