Heroes Not Zombies

Of the 20 possible answers to the question How to Live in Sarah Bakewell’s book, this is one of my most favourite ones. Every time I’ve visited another country I feel my life has been enriched. Montaigne’s main reason for travelling was the opportunity it brought to meet new people, people with different habits, different beliefs and different ways of seeing the world. This is exactly my experience.

Can you imagine lifestyles, culture and habits any more different than Japan, India, South Africa, Morocco, France, Italy, Spain, USA, Russia…..and these are just some of the countries I’ve visited.

Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve been fortunate to meet friendly, helpful, well meaning people. Of course, as we’re all human, we’ve found many things in common, but it’s the differences which are the most interesting thing. As Montaigne found, these encounters introduce us to different ways of thinking and different habits…..they expand our range of choices and ways of living. And they do that other thing he wrote about…..they challenge our habits. In more modern terms they make us more aware of our unconscious ways of living, giving us the opportunity to reflect and reassess our daily behaviours.

For many years I planned to emigrate once I retired and I followed through on that plan almost eight years ago now. It wasn’t a matter of preferring one country to another. It’s not that I think France is a better place than Scotland. It’s that they are very different. Different language, different culture, different climate, and consequently plenty of opportunities to discover new ways of thinking and to learn different ways to live. My move here has absolutely met my expectations. I continue to learn the language, continue to discover new ways of living my daily life. And I still travel – well, apart from the Covid times of restrictions over the last couple of years.

We move, we humans.

We travel, we humans.

We migrate, we humans.

Because in so doing we have the opportunity to enhance our lives and those of others, we can build new relationships, make new connections and increase the depth and understanding of life together.