Darker Note Under Breezy Melodies
 

Earlier today I read that phrase pertaining to travel. The author was referring to travelers who see the country they are visiting of their own imagination and come away thinking all is glorious.

I know I do that when I visit Italy. I see the immense beauty, mingle with the outgoing happy people and test all the wonderful food and come away blissful.

I don't see the darker note and I want to bask in the breezy melodies. What do you think? Do we see only what we want to see?
Do we take away the best impression because we are on holiday and giddy? Is this bad?

I am pretty sure when I make my plans, that most of what I will be experiencing, I WANT to see! Very rarely does a place disappoint me....yes, I know I see the (some of) flaws, but on the whole, unless something awful happens, I always have the BESTEST time ever :-D It is just the way I am also. I like your title!

Everything is relative. There are people who think the streets in the US are paved with gold and that opportunity is limitless. Obviously that isn't true. The city mouse envies the country mouse, and vice versa.

One takes a vacation to escape the stress and pressure of everyday life. If you want to take a trip to find a mission to better life someplace, that's something else. The rewards are different, but you must be prepared to really give of yourself in one circumstance, whereas in the other you are simply there to be "on holiday."

Isn't that why a lot of people come back from vacation and immediately plan to uproot and move to wherever they just returned from? ;)

Yes! that is the Yankee and I!
We come home and I make food the way it was prepared wherever we were and I go out and buy things to decorate the house in that fashion ( Parisian, English country, Provencal) and we talk about how we can manage to live there. :)
I think it is part of being an Optimist. I do not go into things looking for the bad side and if I do see it, I dismiss it as not the normal way things are and go along my merry way~
Works for me :)

"...if I do see it [the bad side of a place], I dismiss it as not the normal way things are and go along my merry way~ Works for me. <smiley face>"

That's disturbing. I hope I never turn into the kind of traveler who holds that outlook. And here's why -

In my city, it's not uncommon to see both great beauty and dismal signs of dispair within the same frame of view. Absorbing only the beautiful things while making a conscious decision to filter out the ugliness leads to callousness of one's spirit. Do I enjoy looking at the effects of homelessness, drug addiction, urban blight, gang activity, poverty, pollution, etc.? No, of course not. Can I help make it go away? Maybe, but definitely not by ignoring that these things exist and then dismissing them as not normal and of little importance.

Strolling around, whether at home or abroad, wearing rose colored glasses with blinders attached has never appealed to my fashion sense. Apathy and lack of empathy, I think, contribute greatly to the problems we live with today. There's light and there's darkness; there's good and there's bad -- how would one ever appreciate one end of the spectrum without having seen the other end?

Stevenson wrote: "For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints."

I guess that sums up how I look at travel most of the time.

Yup, that's what I call a vacation.

Most of us, when we travel on holiday, just don't get any real idea of what it's like to work or keep a roof over your head in the places we visit. So of course we get a different perspective.

mmmmmm, not sure. depends on where you go. I came back from Peru thinking "very interesting, but grim and depressing". city or country, no matter - poverty everywhere.

Interesting discussion. The more I can see and understand of the places I visit, the more real they seem. Some vacations may be planned to avoid that feeling, to just experience something positive and relaxing. Other vacations may be planned to experience a culture in depth, learning about the harmonies created by the interplay of those darker notes and breezy melodies.

Our own perspectives change our view of a place, and this is why so many people here disagree about their experiences in various places.

There is an old song by Sinatra - "Its So Nice to Go Trav'ling ". Find it and listen to the lyrics.

Yes, it's an interesting question. I love to travel in Italy for the magnificent food, the glorious landscapes, the sunny attitude of the people in the South, but to my mind, it wouldn't be such a rich tapestry without some glimpses of the reality lying just under the surface.

I think it's the difference between love of vacationing, where one usually wants to filter out anything too overly stressful, and love of travel, where one might want to see a new place with eyes and mind more open to everything, to enrich the spirit. Wish I could have the time and money for both! I don't, so when I need a vacation, I might take a brief respite in a beautiful location on a long weekend. But for my precious 2 weeks of "vacation" from my worklife, I love to travel and see the whole picture, however it arises!

IMO, the sunny spirit and generosity of Italians is more luminous against a backdrop that includes the all the bright and dark colors of life there! Strange, but I also come home feeling joyful each time!

KS452 wrote-"That's disturbing. I hope I never turn into the kind of traveler who holds that outlook. And here's why -"

I would have gathered from your previous postings that you would not see things the way I do. Although I do not find it disturbing ( which might be called a darker note) I do find it expected. And I seriously doubt you would ever "turn into " a person with my kind of outlook..

Hi SU,

Interesting post.

I don't have to travel to hear the darker notes; I need only sit home and watch the news.

I travel to hear the breezy melodies.

I for one have never been able to find the knob that controls the bass/treble of the music of travel. Breezy melodies, dark notes - it's all there, embedded in the symphony. Deconstructing it is a disservice to the Composer.

Very well put, gardyloo

"Darker notes" for some are actually "breezy melodies" for others.

For some of us those "darker notes" include the implication that travel must be done a certain way and with a certain perspective, which, to me, undermines one of the chief byproducts of travel: broadening one's horizons.

From my point of view, I wonder about the "travel to relax" concept. I love to travel but I do not find it "relaxing." The definition of "relaxation" must be a subjective term. I find my excitment builds. I know I'm so lucky and that makes me almost humble. Of course, then the fears and "what-if's" crop up. I begin obsessing, "Do I have my passport", "Do I have my tickets?" The hassle to the airport, the whole airport thing; the flight is a necessary evil and then voila, I find myself in a country in which I do not speak the language very well, I am not familiar with anything; and either I've travelled with a friend who doesn't like the same things I do OR I've ventured out alone. Its both my joy and my education. As an example, Paris is not a Disneyland for adults, every corner pristine and beautifully decorated. If one walks and walks, you'll notice the brass plaques dedicated to heros of the horror of wars; you'll see poverty and "meaness", you'll notice the homeless and the disenfranchised, lost youth. You'll see the necessities of life...things EVERY culture has in common (eye-glass shops, shoe shops, discount clothing; pharmacies, appliance stores; etc. etc. etc.) And for as different our cultures are, people are the same. Relaxing to me -no. Exhilerating, yes.
I can drive 2 hours and be at the beach...and that's relaxing...when my tired mind can just "veg out"

SeaUrchin, my mother could have written your post word for word. She has exactly the same outlook as you in regard to Italy, which is why, in her mid-70s, she resolutely drags my father to Italy at least every other year, if not more! She is no sooner on the plane back home than she is planning another trip. Everything about Italy pleases my mother. It is not in her nature to be critical of that which she loves. Is it bad to come away from a place thinking all is glorious? I don't think so. Holidays should be occasions for happiness and wonder. Seeing the good and the beauty in a land is good for one's soul. I look at my mother's happiness in Italy (and my father thinks it's a pretty grand place, too) and can see nothing wrong with her outlook. My husband and I saw Italy for the first time last year because my mother made us see it through her eyes--and you know what? We liked what we saw.

I, on the other hand, see it all when I travel. I sometimes wish I could put my mother's rose-tinted glasses on, but that is not in MY nature. Does it make me love a place less, to see it in both its beauty and its less-flattering light? No. I travel to create memories for myself. I remember it all, but what I choose to remember first and foremost is that which made me happy and captured my imagination. I still recall the shop girl in Sorrento, for example, who was rude and unhelpful to me when I asked for directions, soaken wet, looking like something the cat dragged in, tired and miserable. Is that what I zero in on when someone asks me about Sorrento? Not on your life. I sigh happily and think about walking down the winding path from our hotel, the mountains of the Amalfi Coast looming ahead of us, and the beatiful blue waters of the shimmering Mediterranean sparkling below us...travel, it's glorious.

What a wonderful thread - thanks SeaUrchin!

I'm an eternal optimist and very seldom sad and blue so that colours not only my travels but my entire life. I LIKE being happy whereas I know some who LIKE having something to moan about.

I'm kind of like dln. I am not oblivious to the "dark notes" when travelling. I think if one is a details person it's hard not to notice all the notes... BUT I naturally tend to focus on the things that excite me, that open my eyes, that educate me... in short the things that please me. I always enjoy travelling and when I look back (fondly) I continue to focus on the things that made the trip special for me.