Ritual and Travel

From Menletter May 2007

By Tim Baehr

I was unpacking from a trip when it occurred to me suddenly: My everyday life neither went into, nor came out of, my backpack. I had been away from my familiar places and routines for three weeks - wearing special clothing selected for the journey, eating special foods and drinking new drinks with family and with people I didn't know, going to some familiar and strange places, living in an altered sense of time, undergoing a few physical ordeals, discovering new friends and unexpected kindnesses, and bringing back gifts for others. Sounds like a typical vacation trip.

It also sounds kind of like a journey of discovery, an odyssey, a trek, a series of events out of a fable, a legend, a fairytale, a myth, a ritual - doesn't it?

And here's what I learned from my latest travels: By its very nature, travel can have the elements of ritual. It involves special clothing, special food and drink, a journey, discoveries, unexpected friends and allies, life lessons, timelessness, gifts. It involves a going out and a coming back. Seen in a new way, a simple vacation can take on a deeper meaning if we're on the lookout for the mythical and ritual elements.

I've begun to remember a lot of past trips as rituals, pondering what was special about them as personal journeys - how the elements link together into a personal narrative or myth, and how they changed me. I'm planning to bring this awareness to future trips, but I suspect that a lot of sense is made after a trip is over, just as fairytales and myths bring into focus what seem to be a series of meaningless incidents and episodes.

I'm also going to bring an awareness of the physical aspects of travel to journeys into ritual and men's retreats. What clothing will I bring? What food will I eat? What allies will I meet? What ordeals will I endure? What gifts will I bring back? How can I consciously make all of these things the physical manifestations of the intent with which I embark on my journey? What memories will I bring back, and how will these memories form a new chapter of my story?