Redefining "travel" (again)

The first time I went to Spain, as a senior in college in 2001, I kept in regular contact with a group of friends and family via email. I wrote a mass email almost every weekday for four months and pushed it out to all those who had expressed interest (or who had at least not expressed disinterest).

The second time I went to Spain I started this blog. I liked the idea that people could choose whether and how often to keep up on my travels without my having to clutter up anyone's inbox. I used the blog to communicate not only about where I was going and what I was seeing & doing, but also how I was feeling and thinking. In looking back, many of my posts were just as much about my inner life as they were about traveling abroad.

When I got back, the blog went dead for a while until my dad pointed out that travel to the Oregon coast is still travel. I'd gotten it in my head that the only travel worth writing about was travel abroad, but Dad had a point.

And now I am reconsidering my definition of "travel" once again. Sure, I might journey to different places a couple times a year, but most of the journeys I take are in my head. And I take a lot of them.

No, I am not talking about tripping out on drugs. I'm talking about thought experiments, new ways of thinking about the world, new "places" I'm discovering in my mind through reading and conversations.

This birth year, for example, I have decided to read 10 "bucket list" books. You know, books "everyone" should read at some point in their lives. I polled my FB friends and have come up with this list (in no particular order):

1. The Book of Revelations (from the Bible)
2. Civilization and Its Discontents - Freud
3. Femininity - Brownmiller
4. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde
5. Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Freire
6. The Communist Manifesto - Marx
7. The Power of Partnership - Eisler
8. East of Eden - Steinbeck
9. Invisible Man - Ellison
10. Opening Up: The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions - Pennebaker

Some of these books I have chosen simply because people recommended them and I had heard of them. Wilde I chose because I am attracted to his philosophy and want to finish reading his essays (I've actually read everything else). And others I've chosen because I think they will help me work toward a larger goal that I've had for several years but have only recently been able to articulate:
I want to learn how to be and express my whole, true self without fear or shame. Or, as my friend Diane put it: I want to learn how to set myself free.
And so I have decided to repurpose this blog. I will still write about trips I take to other cities, states and countries, but I also want to use it to communicate about the books I'm reading; the new ways I'm learning to think, see and be; and the actions I'm taking and habits of mind I'm forming in order to set myself free.