Perpetual Motion Machine
on the purpose of travel
“Why are you traveling? What’s the goal?”
An innocent question, asked by an innocent man in London.
I smile, dumbstruck and paralyzed.
A harder question would be, “Why aren’t you traveling?“
I’m traveling because I love dancing in Europe, and the wonderful people I meet through dance are smeared across a continent. (That’s how I met this man.)
I’m traveling because I adore slow bicycles, fast trains, and cheap flights—each one a magical teleportation device.
I’m traveling because little compares to wandering a new city in the morning, running a long trail in the afternoon, and dining on fresh conversation in the evening.
I’m traveling because, without travel, I don’t know how to write, love, dream, or breathe. Without travel, I cannot feel my own pulse.
I’m traveling because I’m a Californian who ran out of West Coast—one who can afford geographic mobility but not social mobility.1
I’m traveling because movement is life. Movement is survival. Movement is “how we preserve our individual and collective dignity when our life conditions become unsustainable, unbearable and cruel.”2
I’m traveling because I am a perpetual motion machine.
Very long excellent article #1: America Doesn’t Just Have a Housing Crisis. It Has a Moving Crisis. (The Atlantic, Feb 10 2025)
Very long excellent article #2: There are no pure cultures (Aeon, Jan 10 2025)
“I’m traveling because I’m a Californian who ran out of West Coast…” What a gorgeously perfect epigram…which I think would wildly fit on a cheerful turquoise-with-sunrise-accents long sleeved t-shirt or hoodie. And it appears you have opened up the whole world as a replacement destination we Americans used to have as Shangri La. 🩵☀️
P.S. Love those fabulously wide-leg trousers in the photo…can you possibly point me to the emporium where you purchased them?
we're home after a year of traveling and I'm enjoying the routines and happy for the kids to plug back into sports and friendships. we do have a big carrot dangling in a few months... moving from EU back to US. it's never the perfect time but for us it feels right. the homeschool opportunities in Belgium are too scarce as we enter into the tween years. I enjoyed the article linked about American Mobility. cheers Blake!