Worth to try to escape?
Well, it is our right
to reach out for space."
This was the chorus of a song that I wrote more than 10 years ago, as I was beginning my travels around the world. To this day, I recall these lines as the key to finding meaning and individuality in life.
Roaming
Traveling releases you in the universe, like some useless particle of stardust. It can be a mind-shattering and life-threatening experience, but it is a necessary re-birth you give yourself, as opposed to the initial birth given by your genitors. Now that you are out there, only you can go the light years and constellate your existence with bright and renewed experiments.
Space, after time, is the second unit of measure of our lives. Where have you been? What have you seen? What was it like for you? Because time is immaterial and intangible, setting ourselves on the space continuum through trips, holidays, gap years and backpacking adventures ticks and crosses important moments spent across the globe throughout our time on earth. Otherwise, why would we bother gathering "souvenirs" of places where we have been?
Outer world
I've always thought that the word "space" strangely rhymes, with "escape", thanks to those twisted electrical currents in my brain. Thinking about it again, the whole thing does make sense. All these men and women who are stuck in situations and find relief in "looking at the stars". All these children and teenagers who "lose track of time" when they are too busy reading/watching/thinking about places in their imaginations. Or even people in relationships who desperately need "space" to reclaim their lives...
Space is this unique entity that gets us to experience our lives for real: we can all cross one land a thousand times, but our internal map of the place will not be identical. With a lot of space we can build or lose our sense of place. The immigrant who had roamed around different countries can easily forget about where he/she came from in the first place. However, many people also wander in search of their very own "place". This is the prime reason why the dynamics of migrations will never be controlled nor contained, despite what some politicians and elements of closed-up societies proclaim.
"When is it that I will find
a suitable place?
I got lost around from
wandering in space..."
This was the conclusion of my very teenage song. I can say that, after crossing the world South to North and West to East, I have found my own place in a land as remote and primal as the "cradle of mankind".
