I crave tangibility. More than anything, I crave something tangible.
I have known this all of my life, but at certain times it becomes much more apparent. Tonight I am thinking about planning a motorcycle trip - there is so much fun to be had in planning. And for me, that fun begins with a map.
A map is a representation of all the places I want to see and go to, and all the places in between. More than that, a map is a representation of all that will happen along the way. The distances represented on a map can be equated to time spent covering those distances. And time can be equated again to experiences, Experience. A map is important, it is the first mental step before the physical steps can begin.
And when I can touch that map, draw on it, pick it up in my hands, feel it against my fingertips - it is then that I can truly feel and know the significance that it implies. I can plan as much as I like using web applications like google maps, and they are great. But for me the route does not exist without tangibility, and I can't touch a google map. Or smell it or taste it or hear it or see it in the full three visual dimensions that exist in this world.
If the map isn't palpable, then how can the roads and routes and plans that it represents be any more real to my senses?
I am reminded tonight of something that I learnt in an English class when we were studying Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
Our teacher posed:
Why is the format of this book so important? Why does it matter that it is letters? What does this signifiy?
Stumped, we responded with predictable answers - it allows him to write in the first person, helps develop characters, add some sort of credibility to a fictional narrative - none of them incorrect.
But, she asked, how do we feel when we receive a letter in the post? Is it not somehow infinitely more special than getting an email, or even a phone call from the same friend? It is the tangibility that is important.
With a letter in our hand we can connect more intimately to the words that it contains. We can screw it up in disgust, cry tears all over it, hold it to our hearts and sigh. We can smell the paper and imagine the person who wrote it, and know that they also held this paper at one point, know that they too had a chance to feel, smell, taste, hear and see what we are seeing as we experience this letter in the real world.
Complete experience - experience that is emotional, physical and psychological - begins with tangibility.
I need a map.
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Hmmmm.... Riding through different parts of Australia I've been finding that distances vary greatly in many respects. Kms up the coast took a lot of time to cover - and they still felt too fast. Out here, you look at the map - then at the numbers and the distances seem huge. But as long as you're prepared for the rescaling (NT map pages would cover the whole of Victoria!), those distances actually shrink back down again when you ride them. The experience of time on them is as different as the rate that they can be covered.
I like riding out here in the desert. It's not only a different space, it's a different headspace.
You won't get that in Europe - you'll get a completely different (perhaps more exciting?) experience, like riding up the coast - probably magnified. And you might not get the scale changes you get out here...
When you get back make sure to do some good country riding and compare the experience.
Loved the way you've written that update and look forward to the next.
(Yes, I'll be updating mine soon - just sorted an inverter so I can charge as I ride, I should be able to write at night now.)
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