Are you not too old to be gallivanting all over the place?

I have to confess that this post was going to be a rant! I was quite angry when someone I know at work said this to me when I was thinking aloud about my next destination. The person who said it is about my age, but with the narrowest view of the world anyone could imagine. I’m sure you know the type – if it doesn’t actually affect me, then it doesn’t matter to me. At first I thought how dare you cast aspersions on my plans!

Then I started to consider it, I wondered am I too old? Am I trying to recapture my youth? Should I think again and grow old gracefully?

Fortunately, I started to think more clearly and I thought about the places and people I have seen, and as importantly, thought about the impact those things have had on me. The amazing sights of the ice festival in China, the wonderful guide in Mandalay who called himself Starsky, the kindness of the poorest of people in Chang Mai who would share everything, the waiter in Mumbai who had lived through the bombing and shooting at the Leopold Restaurant, the fact that I could not get a Madras curry in Madras/Chennai, the train journey to Kandy in Sri Lanka to see the Buddha’s tooth are all things I would hate to have missed. I have to say my view changed, and I started to think how cheerless it must be to have such a blinkered outlook on life and the world.

Imagine not even wanting to know the sights that are out there, having no aspirations to see Machu Pichu, or Mount Everest, not to even know about Petra or Angkor Wat, let alone want to see them. How sad it must be to only want to live your life within the narrow confines of your own home town.

Then I thought again (a very introspective period and very unlike me!), and I thought I’m guilty of exactly the same thing – believing I know best. Of course it’s okay to think 60 something is too old to go gallivanting – it may well be for the person who said it, but it’s not for me.

To each his own, and wouldn’t the world be a boring place if we all wanted the same things. I should be pleased that other people don’t want to visit places on my list, this way it’s much less crowded!

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