A Travel Question for the Blogger In All of Us

The Great Plotnik asks you to consider this question: here you're gonna be, on a beautiful sailboat, in one of the planet's most gorgeous spots, with many new sights and sounds and smells and tastes to experience. Plus, you're with wonderful old friends.

So, do you REALLY need your computer?



How about that really COOL digital recorder you could buy on EBay, which would then enable you to make a digital sound record of --- oh, waves slapping at the bow, pineapple sellers in the local market, music you happened to hear on the street in Port of Spain, the accent of the lady who runs the bed and breakfast, that conga drummer at the bake and shark stand?

(Translation: bake and shark is Trinidadian for fresh fish, fried with hot chilies and spices and served on Indian roti bread.)

(You could even post these sounds to your blog!)

Or -- listen to me now, Plotnik -- how about just a camera, a few books, a journal and a pencil or two? Wouldn't that make everything easier, less to worry about, less to keep track of?

I mean, shorts, sandals, swim trunks, a toothbrush, a camera? Isn't that what simplification in life is supposed to lead to? Isn't this the idea?


So Plotnik is considering the metaphysical dilemma this morning. He says he wants to grab huge pieces of the planet, to see and hear and experience what the world has to offer (with a few exceptions: pain, illness and death come to mind). But he also wants to sing about it, to take pictures of it, to listen to it, to blog about it, to write about it in depth, in other words to experience it more than just once.

The question is simple: can you really enjoy that shark and bake if you're already thinking about how to describe the texture of the roti? Can you get blown away by that waterfall without noticing where the sun will land on your lens? If the shaman doesn't smile during her exorcism can you really ask her to do it again and look right at you this time?

He knows what the answer SHOULD be. He's just not sure what the answer IS.