Waxing Philosophical

I've just read an inspiring book that has renewed my belief in the value of my travels. When we were kids we'd read books from my dad's 7000+ book personal library and often these books would be about adventurers, travelers, pirates, other cultures, so on...they definitely dug something deep into me. Books are amazing records of the mind of a man, or the experiences of a woman, and I recently realized that I had picked up the habit from dad of thinking and speaking as if certain authors were personal friends. I might say "Well a friend once told me that when couples argue, what they're really saying is 'BE MORE PEOPLE', and I think he meant that petty arguments stem not from the apparent source of anger, but from a deep-set need for community and family that we're lacking in our world. I really want to bring that back." Or I might say that a friend had told me once that the Gulf of California was great for tide-pooling, by which I'd mean John Steinbeck. Well, I have a new friend I'd like to introduce.

Armand Denis was a minor genius whose professional live stretched across the first 2/3 of the 20th century. I call him a minor genius because he is own of those fellows who made serious contributions to professions where he was a self-taught amateur. For example, he invented the device that keeps radio volume constant (up till that time radio volume rose and fall rather constantly and unpredictably), and became an expert in recording sound on film with no training, merely by dicking around with the equipment for awhile. He spent most of his life making films of the animals and people of the world. He was a conservationist when the term did not exist, and was instrumental in changing the public view of wild animals...although now we're used to seeing animals in Disney movies as the heroes and hunters cast as evil, back in the day it was man versus nature, and killing an animal was the greatest show of courage a man could show. Anyway, lest this turn into a book report rather than a blog, I'll let the man talk then end this.

"Richness and variety were constantly succumbing to sameness and uniformity and I suddenly felt an almost obsessive compulsion to see what was left of the world before it was too late." This quote...it's the soul of why I'm travelling, alongside a love of change and adventure, and it's why I encourage everyone I know to travel.

"No single group, I am convinced, ever has a right to claim a monopoly of goodness or wisdom or political sense, still less to try imposing its views on other theoretically less enlightened people in the name of religion or politics. Societies are usually best left to work these things out according to their own traditions."

"As a scientist I was theoretically on the side of progress and I had always been impatient of the kind of sentimentalist who always crop up to defend whatever is picturesque or inefficient or out-of-date. But gradually I realized that what was happening in Bali was something different. Progress was not replacing here---it was simply destroying. Wherever it penetrated, the old way of life seemed to crumble, and however much I tried to convince myself of the benefits that progress would bring the balinese, I knew in my heart that their contentment would go. Their culture would degenerate into a caricature of their former civilization to amuse the tourists. This whole rich, unique way of life around me would be turned into one more bad imitation of America." After my dissapointing visit to Bali, this almost made me cry, to realize that what he'd predicted had come true, and that I as a tourist was part of the problem. I try to be a responsible tourist, but...it's frustrating.

"My father...was what the French call "econome". He believed that money should be prudently laid out for certain definite ends, and that to waste money was not only immoral, but one of the highest forms of stupidity." This reminded me of dad, and also us sons, since we all picked up the attitude.

"Plan your itinerary as thoroughly as you can beforehand so as to cut down delays to a minimum. At the same time, you have to accept the fact that things will go wrong, so that within your plans you must leave yourself as many alternatives and as much flexibility as possible." Seems to me like the perfect description of how to travel, and for that matter approach any project in life.

"The only principle I have ever worked to has always been to do whatever interested me at the time." This reminds me of what you said once about that movie "Adaptation." One of the characters constantly changes careers and finds some happiness in it, and it gave you the idea that the happiness of a man can be maintained by his interests, and that finding hobbies and professional interests can provide meaning. At least that's how I remember it, I suppose I'm sort of paraphrasing. Anyway, his quote continues, "I have gambled quite consciously with myself and with my career, and I am lucky that the gamble has paid off. But in case anyone feels like following my example, it is only fair that I should give the same warning that I always give to any new cameramen who join me. I tell them that if they come with me they will enjoy themselves. They will savour the satisfaction that wild life has to give, but they will also change. For once they have tasted a wild existence, they will never be really satisfied to settle down to life of the cities again. The canker of restlessness will be within them for the rest of their lives. Only in the wild will they ever be really at peace with themselves." I think I've got the canker.

This guy is really an inpiration. And if you're thinking that my opinions are too easily influenced by books (as many people said after I read some Ayn Rand), the fact is simply that while most people's opinions are subconsciouly formed as the result of TV shows, commercials, ads, and other people's opinions, so we aren't so different. I choose books, music, movies, and other people's opinions as the source of my opinions, but screen them with a highly discriminating eye, as my conscious means of forming my own opinion.