Monday, August 10, 2009
Word of the Month: Wanderlust
This word is in the language, but I like to talk about it anyway (see my first comment). It's composed of two Words: wandern (to hike, stroll, travel by foot) and Lust (desire). In its milder form, Wanderlust indicates a fondness for travelling, especially for travelling abroad; in its stronger form, it implies a real itch or restlessness--people overcome by Wanderlust do not want to stay home, and when they return from a (possibly extended) trip, immediately start thinking about the next one.
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9 comments:
If you look at the map of the cities I've visited, you may guess that I'm suffering from at least a mild case of wanderlust.
It started in my teens, in the 1950's, when I hitchhiked across parts of Europe. That period culminated in a 3-month trip to the Middle East and N. Africa with a friend in his VW beetle. When my wife and I lived in Berlin in the 1970s, we explored various European countries during summer breaks, and when we moved to the US, discovered the SW, which we have visited several times.
My wanderlust has come into full swing again after retirement and led me (or us) to more exotic places, like the Arctic (twice) and French Polynesia.
I think this explains my fondness for this word of the month.
...just found out that you need to be signed up for facebook if you wan to see the map--there's no way around it.
The German word Wanderlust is actually used as is in Holland. Just like Wunderkind and many other words I can't think of now.
I'm a little more reluctant to travel these days, i.e. it has to be worth my while, not too short.
@mac: I'm with you--that sentiment got me to Tahiti and the Arctic twice.
In general, I feel that as long as I am physically capable of doing this sort of thing, I should do it--who knows how long this will last. The big seven-o is looming larger and larger at the horizon (in 2011 actually).
Hi Mac and Ulrich... I love hearing about your travels --Mac in Alaska and frequently in Holland, not to mention all the rest, Ulrich on an idyllic sailing trip and sharing those fabulous photos! Many thanks...
I'm not as eager to roam these days, and it's not just my age or the costs or the mechanics or the crowds possibly encountered... I was lucky to have experienced a wide variety of travel early, from a singing tour through Europe and then as a college student in Paris and Geneva, to later when married (Prague, USSR twice, a summer in Normandy, and so on). I never used to do much watching of TV or as much reading as I do now!
These days I'm thrilled with the exotic trips plus really exceptional camera work available on PBS from places I'd never try to visit -- example: "The Queen of Trees" aired last Sunday about the Sycamore Fig in Africa, with stuning photography including vital parasites inside the fruits, birds and bees nesting in the trunk, plus other familiars like monkeys and snakes routed by ants, giraffes and elephants, incredible butterfliies, etc. My very favorite was a frilly pink mantis! This is a "don't miss" -- sensory surfeit and advanced ecobiology course all in one! Fabulous.
The reading (at least a book a day) is my other way of cramming in all the adventures available in my remaining years. The young man who's staying with me part-time in exchange for garden work and other chores is preparing to teach history, and this absorbing (and endless) field has been wonderful to share. Older books like Barbara W. Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror: the Calamitous 14th Century" and the new biography of the Polish humanitarian and engineer Kosciuszko, "The Peasant Prince", were the highlights of this summer's reading...
There were also amazing biographies like "Madam Sarah" by Cornelia Otis Skinner, about the Divine Bernhardt, who traveled to all continents giving more stage performances than imaginable even at the end, when she hd only one leg! Fiction in between included rereading Scottish mysteries by Gerald Hammond and other long-time favorites.
So it's been a different kind of Wanderlust lately -- more vicarious, yes, but rather like time-travel at the speed of light and infinitely fascinating!
@artlvr: One book per day? Respect!
Laraine complains that during the time when I used to read (in the evening before going to bed), I'm now doing xword puzzles, which has dramatically reduced the number of books I'm reading.
Back to wanderlust: My wanderlust is still so strong that watching programs of the kind you mentioned can be positively painful for me: All I can think is, "I will never get there!" But I cannot resist watching...
Same with travel books--I just finished Robert Byron's The Road to Oxiana, where he describes a trip he took in 1933 through what are now the trouble spots in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Rory Stewart, whose gripping description of his more recent hike through the length of Afghanistan, The Places Inbetween I read before, wrote a preface to the reprint I have. Both are highly recommended!
@ArtLvr: remember, Thoreau said: I have travelled widely in Concort...
My father used to use the quote when we tried to convince him to cross the Atlantic once again.
@mac: As the Romans said, freely translated: "One doesn't desire what one doesn't know".
BTW I'm talking about Thoreau, not artlvr--she knows what she's missing and is fine with it...
Just love the word and love what it represents .... Just love traveling. As they say in French : "Les voyages forment la jeunesse" !
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