A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.
The ruins of the unsustainable are the 21st century’s frontier.
(I feel like blessing myself and muttering some apologetic prayer to the god of climate change before starting this.)
I've been all over this year. Between work and (now that I've finished my Masters) personal holidays, I visited 14 cities in 4 continents in 2007:
- Dublin
- Turin (well, actually snowboarding tragically close by)
- San Francisco
- Galway
- Agadir
- Essaouira
- Marrakesh
- Newcastle
- Seville
- Belfast
- Aukland
- Christchurch
- Queenstown
- Seoul (just overnight, but I'm counting it)
But it's only made the travel bug worse. I experienced the most amazing places I've ever been this year, Morocco and New Zealand especially, and I can see that I've only begun to realise the possibilities that adventurous travel has to offer me, and that I've only begun to touch them. It's a never-ending chase, but I love the experience, feel hugely broadened after, and have the best travel buddy ever.
For the first time in ages that I can remember, I've now got a blank slate in front of me: no plans yet settled to move out of the country. But ideas are stewing, and I fully intend to make the most of them.
