Wanderlust

 

Etymological information for Wanderlust: 1902, From German wanderlust, l.t. desire for wandering.

“Wanderlust is incurable.”
― Mark Jenkins, The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival, and the Soul of Adventure

I see myself in a dream.  I am wandering through the snow in Alaska.  It is so very cold.  I am trying to hurry, to meet the bus.  Where the bus is going to take me I don’t know.  All I know is that I am in a hurry.  Suddenly, I see a polar bear; he is sitting on the very edge of the ocean fishing or something.  I dare not to get too close.  When all of the sudden, he comes running at me.  I am running and find myself running towards the ocean, I know if I run this way I will be trapped, but for some reason I keep running.  Soon I find myself at the edge.  The bear is coming closer, but has slowed down since he knows I have nowhere else to go.  I can hear the ice floor breaking, I am thinking I am going to die, either drown or get eaten, and then miraculously, the chunk I am standing on breaks free.  I am floating, floating out into the great blue sea. 

NASA’s "Perpetual Ocean" describes motion.  It is a picture of half of the world.  The background is black, so black you can’t see any further into it.  Only half of the earth is painted.  The whole ocean is in perpetual motion.  The picture shows a whole lot of swirls signifying the ocean in motion.  There is so much motion going on.  The land is described in brown.  It is so tiny compared to how much ocean there is.  It is the only stationary piece in the whole picture.  To me, that signifies home base.  The oceans though, they are in motion, even the water is being pushed around to go new places.  The world so big and blue, water on all sides of the land makes it seem like you will never be able to reach every inch of the ocean beaches in a lifetime.

Mark Jenkins says “Wanderlust is incurable.”  I am thinking to myself as I write this, is this true?  I am always in search of something, always moving around and I never seem satisfied no matter where I land.  I’m pretty sure there is something in this world I am missing.  With the world so big and the oceans so wide, maybe the painting described above is right.  There is no way you can ever see everything there is to see in this world.  Everywhere you wander to is new and fresh and exciting to see.  It’s no wonder he says it’s incurable.

So we go back to my dream.  I am floating on an iceberg with no land in site.  The bear is standing on the bank deciding whether or not to jump in after me.  I think about this dream a lot.  I’ve had it since I was a child.  Could this be my inner self telling me that I am destined to wander for all time?  I have wandered since I was a child.  First unwillingly with my parents, but now, as an adult I have a desire for it.  Matter of fact I have become addicted to it.  Even if I have a home base, I think I will be wandering in search of the unknown until I’m no longer physically able.  Wanderlust is indeed incurable.