This week was undoubtedly one of the most uninteresting weeks of my life. In fact the most interesting part of the entire week was how incredibly uninteresting it was. That being said, Australia is a lovely place to just stare out the window and think. Most mornings I woke up to a hot cup of tea and a good book.
I attempted to start my new routine of swimming a mile at least three days a week as soon as I wake up. Up to this point I have been unable to commit, but this week I felt extra inspired. I knew if I could only get the three days in this week I would have the drive to make it a permanent habit. Unfortunately, I was only able to swim two mornings before it started half way through the week.
Now when I say it started to rain, I mean to say that it poured. It continued to pour the rest of the week. There were multiple intervals, but they never last for more than a few minutes. In addition to being incredibly wet, it was cold and windy as well.
As I sat at my desk with the aforementioned tea and book, I would occasionally glimpse out the window at the grey stormy atmosphere around me. My attention was often captured by the loud howling noise that came from outside. While it may have lead one to believe that a train was running right through the apartment complex, it was, in fact, the ferocious wind.
I would lay awake at night listening to that howling wind causing the shrubs outside to drag across my window making an awful screeching sound and the steady barrage of rain drops on roofs and windows all around the complex. Despite the chaos outside, I found the sounds oddly soothing and eventually settled into a good nights sleep.
As I said before, a majority of my week was spent reading. I was reading a book for class. Luckily, it was an excellent thought provoking and touching book. In English literature we are looking at the genre of science fiction. The book I was reading is The Dispossessed. It is the story of a man who from an anarchic planet who attempts to bring his theories to another planet in hopes of perfecting simultaneous communication, there by creating brotherhood between the two planets. In fact, the planet which he goes to is a large utopian society.
However, this utopian society has a hidden secret, a large discontent group of underprivileged. Hundreds of years ago a group of these underprivileged fled to the near by moon creating a new society, the planet from which our scientist friend comes from. The book studies what makes a utopian or anarchic society as the distinctions are blurred.
There was an interesting excerpt from the book which has remained in my head for the past few weeks. The main character is thinking about the people who founded his planet years ago and attempts to make a comparison with his own journey. He attempts to make a distinction between an adventurer and an explorer. He proposes an adventurer is one who leaves his home to traverse the globe, inevitably bound to a life of solitude. An explorer, however, leads a more fulfilled life. This is because he realizes the importance of the return trip to the entirety of the journey.
I feel his musings are intrinsically linked to my personal musings from last week. I have mentioned many times I feel blessed to be able experience such an amazing journey. However, I have been thinking about home more often. The knowledge that I will return home is what allows me to enjoy my time abroad. It is my anchor, my base camp that I can return to after my long journey.
When I return home I hope to apply the lessons I have learned and the new view and understanding of society to my life back home. I feel this is what the character was primarily focused on. The journey is worth nothing if there is no one to share it with. The ultimate goal of the journey is to learn and bring home new ideas. I have plenty of new ideas and a whole new outlook on life.
