My own theory is that jet lag begins not in midair but the moment one sets foot in the airport. Checking in, passing through security, drifting toward the departure gate - all stages in a glorious slippage of identity. As you hover along the concourse, eyes a-flicker, your tastes and habits fall away. You are between states, between countries: Unwonted pleasures recommend themselves. You buy an expensive magazine about cars, despite having no interest in cars. At 9:30 in the morning you find yourself eating a plate of General Gao’s chicken. Who are you? Without the name printed on your boarding pass you’d have no idea.

—

James Parker, “Jet Lag” (via Boston Globe)

So much truth.

Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.

— Will Smith (via)

You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

— Lord Chesterfield

If we should get lost,
throw away all of the maps
and stay lost with me.

— Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson (via tylerknott)

Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.

— Jack Kerouac

So let’s not pretend that travel is always fun, or that we endure the jet lag for pleasure. We don’t spend ten hours lost in the Louvre because we like it, and the view from the top of Machu Picchu probably doesn’t make up for the hassle of lost luggage. (More often than not, I need a vacation after my vacation.) We travel because we need to, because distance and difference are the secret tonic of creativity. When we get home, home is still the same. But something in our mind has been changed, and that changes everything.

— Jonah Lehrer, Why We Travel

Sitting there, alone in a foreign country, far from my job and everyone I know, a feeling came over me. It was like remembering something I’d never known before or had always been waiting for, but I didn’t know what. Maybe it was something I’d forgotten or something I’ve been missing all my life. All I can say is that I felt, at the same time, joy and sadness. But not too much sadness, because I felt alive. Yes, alive.

—

Carol, Paris, Je T’aime

Just watched this movie with the parents. It doesn’t make an ounce of sense and makes you feel like you’re tripping on some kind of illegal substance for two hours, but it did have the odd quotable gem in it.