Quo Vadis?

December 20, 2021

Geneva, Switzerland

A place of Refuge

Quo Vadis is Latin for “Where goest thou?” in the King James English- or “Where are you going?”

It is the traveler’s question for 2021 recovery from the Covid-19 health crisis- not “how are you?”, or “what’s next?” but “where do we go from here?”

The “where” question is about the next destination, the next journey. An inquiry about next steps that implies getting moving again, moving forward. The U.S. President says “build back better”. This is the response of a settler, a landowner, about the status quo and it’s recovery. A perspective of a progressive, perhaps, but a settler, not a traveler. As it should be for someone in charge of rebuilding a country from its worst disaster in a century.

But those of us on a journey know what’s needed to heal from a life-threatening crisis is not necessarily rebuilding on the old foundations, but moving on. The first step to moving on is often stocktaking- an inventory- to discover realistically what remains from failure and loss, then introspection and confession, and finally action. Crisis sometimes leads to packing bags and heading down the road to a new destination. And some refugees often don’t even have the luxury of time to pack.

Many of us were profoundly touched by the Pandemic- and the subsequent chaos, instability, and loss- including loss of faith and trust in our institutions and leaders. We have suffered losses from the pandemic, but also economic and political divisions, from racial injustice, from police abuse of power and violence, and insurrection: willingness by some to grab power, use violent means, break the law, and see democracy disenfranchised, while seeming to take delight in causing suffering, and using a crisis as pretext to harm. The rest of the world has felt this same loss, an un-mooring from decency, for two decades now under the partisan, lawless “war on terror” that has hit millions as harshly as any pandemic.

1 Vaccination pecking order reveals world’s hierarchy and continued white supremacy

Despite all the rhetoric from the “advanced democracies” we still live in a hierarchical world.

Widespread and safe-vaccine might not be available for developing countries for a year or more, while they, and minorities, the poor- and elderly- bear a disproportionate burden of the pain and harm of the Covid-19 pandemic. The world’s richest countries not only sponsored vaccine development, but have bought the first year’s production- but countries with little transparency- Russia and China- are offering vaccines that were clearly rushed to market and offered to the elites of other countries. In the Western world, the elites and security forces, many via medical private providers and perhaps even the black market, will be quietly vaccinated first. Essential workers, who have risked their lives, often for low wages, are not yet in line- except healthcare workers. The availability of vaccine reveals who is really essential to power, and the world’s pecking order. Worse, this may be a dress-rehearsal for who may bear the brunt of climate change

The rest of us travel about as we may, when we are given leave. We should likewise wisely choose to use this crisis, and the moments after, to prepare for what may come after.

2 Travel plans- public health and nationalism, borders, and the human herd

During the first spike in the Pandemic, borders closed fast, and many remain closed. Sovereignty and nation states proved to be the fall-back instruments used to impose control over crisis when it came down to a crisis.

Borders closed fast- even though computer models shows closing borders spreads virus faster because this restriction create a panic among travelers and a scrabble to travel for survival’s sake. The same contrary effect happens when governments make vaccination mandatory; trust is lost and fewer people are willing to get vaccinated.

Right now, travelers must still shelter in place until vaccine or herd immunity makes travel safe. What pandemics do show us- in the harshest terms- is we are a human race, a human herd. For humankind, a virus anywhere is virus here too. Yet we still run back to the old tribal political and power systems. Boundaries, sovereignty, and jurisdictions are human constructs- and they actually make many crises worse- just like political divisions- e.g. Red State aggression against Blue States. Also good administration is real and has profoundly positive effects. Some states and nations did very poorly indeed given their resources, while others with good governance did very well, despite having fewer resources. But still we rush back to nationalism to comfort us when threatened. Not to each other.

3 Safety and good management count more that aggression

Good governance matters. Facts and fact based science really matter. The different between well managed countries and poorly managed countries was profound. Sweden conducted what was in effect a natural experiment, opting for herd immunity- allowing the natural spread of disease to create immunity ( no treatment- the placebo) while her neighbors pursued science based public health measures. Sweden’s death rate was 8-9 times higher.

The worst cases among well-resourced states were even more tragic.

The United States currently (January 2021) has out of control spread of illness, it’s medical facilities and staff are at their limits, and the vaccination program is failing. February update- the geometric rise in infection seems to have peaked and the vaccination of the most-at-risk is starting to progress. Russia, Brazil, India, and the UK have all failed to control their infections from spreading wildly, though they have all also developed vaccines or managed to purchase them. France, Italy, and Spain also have seen second spikes that they have struggled to control; all these countries have travel warnings for 2021.

Political comity and community really matter to security more than defense spending and an aggressive security stance toward possible threats. Indeed, aggression, conflict, and distrust among the U.S., China, and Russia may have allowed this century’s plague to spread unchecked for months.

4 The recent meanings for travel are useless now- and may deserve to be abandoned

Travel in Western Classic literature was for pilgrimages- or discovery and war. The Odyssey is the story of a long journey back from a foreign war. The Canterbury Tales is a series of stories of travelers talking about their lives as they share days together on the road towards a religious pilgrimage. The voyages of discovery weren’t voyages of scientific discovery, but rather navigation and geopolitical “discovery”- making claims on territory and obtaining resources and trading goods.

Contrast these significant, but not always just reasons for travel with travel in the modern Western world for trivial purposes:

• purchasing, commerce, consumption- the grand tour
• distractions, entertainment, diversion
• leisure and escape, killing time
• status seeking, globetrotting, being seen
• sightseeing, thrill seeking, adventurism, an antidote to boredom

The modern tourist destinations are designed for entertainment, leisure, escape, and sightseeing. But relief from routine in an age of Plague is decadent. The destinations for escape are well known in the new- but in this sense less developed- world:

1 Las Vegas, Hollywood, Disney World, US one-time authentic cultural birthplaces: Nashville, New Orleans, Miami, Key West, Santa Fe.

2 Whereas New York, Washington DC, London and Paris represent pilgrimages to “culture”, wealth, power, and finance. The capitols of the empires.

One of the world’s most modern destinations is the libertine oasis of Las Vegas- a flight from God and Morality and to a place where immorality and vices are indulged. And a trap built by organized crime to encourage gambling and to take money from suckers. Travel in this respect represents flight from self and God. Whereas Hollywood and Disney are commercial monuments to escapism and fiction. Can we really afford the indulgence of fantasy at this time of crisis? Or is escapism sometimes necessary?

5 Travel as flight to safety, freedom, good functioning government and society, refuge, freedom from persecution, migration, immigration, and refuge.

Before borders closed, people moved in search of their well-being: Pandemic health and safety,

climate change health and safety, flight from inequality and injustice to opportunity, escape from persecution, failure, decline to hope.

The Pandemic should give us empathetic connection to travelers seeking escape and refuge. Stories of refugees seeking safety and shelter are the oldest remembered and told about people, God, and faith:

3 Egypt is the traditional place of refuge from starvation and tyranny for the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Jesus, taken by his parents, flees death at the hands of the tyrant Herod in Egypt, the ancient Kingdom, and wonder of the ancient world.

4 Jerusalem, the Holy city, was the pilgrimage goal of both Jesus on the road to Jerusalem, and Muhammad.

5 The Prophet Muhammad and his flight from Mecca to the wilderness, and refuge in Medina, Saudi Arabia. These other ancient Holy cities for pilgrims.

6 Buddha, on the Road, and under the Banyan Tree in Sarnath, India- where he taught non-attachment and sought to end needless suffering, modeled compassion.

6 Travel as a cure for illness, and a way of recovery from crisis, death, memorial- pilgrimage- healing, grieving, surrender.

7 Thanatology is the study of death and meditation on our mortality. The Buddhists also meditate on impermanence- visit Dalai Lama’s ashram in Dharamsala, India. In Europe we meditate at the Paris necropolis, the flame-ravaged Notre Dame, Flanders Field and Verdun, and the Roman tombs. In the United States, Arlington Cemetery, and Gettysburg. In India Varanasi. Hinduism has it’s Renunciates on pilgrimage everywhere, in preparation for a good rebirth, by means of a good final journey.

Every mortal human, especially facing their mortality, needs a travel bucket list (important and less-than-important things to do before you “kick the bucket”)- travel as the first and last act of the drama: from the fool to the renunciate. Also consider the middle act of the vagabond, the wanderer, the seeker.

Seeking God and the source of life and healing:

8 Lourdes, France where the lame and sick seek a vision of the Holy Mother, then cast away their- literal or figurative- crutches.

9 The pilgrimage to Compostela on the Camiño de Santiago, also known as the Way of St. James, is a network of pilgrims’ ways leading to the shrine of the apostle Saint James in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain, staying in traveler’s shelters along the Way.

10 Visiting the old spiritual communities- the ancient monasteries of Greece, Turkey, Italy, France, and the modern monasteries of the Americas.

11 Nepal/India ashrams at Rishikesh, Amritsar, Varanasi, Sarnath- the monastic centers and the wandering pilgrims/ teachers. Buddhist temples in Japan.

12 Chaco Canyon, Hopi, and the Great Pueblo, in New Mexico, the ancient pilgrimage cultures. The ancient cultural sites of the Aztecs, Incas, Mayans.

7 Travel as a way to connect more closely with self and others:

Inner world travel is not for the faint of heart, and even the most intrepid and honest personal explorer can become blocked- fear, grief, shame- the road to self discovery is sometimes a literal road. A shared road is a way to tell stories and connect with fellow travelers- hostels and guest houses, travelers huts.

13 English midlands- Shakespeare’s Stratford on Avon, Harvard, Cambridge, walking paths around Canterbury- revel in the Protestant and Western classics, scholars, and footpaths of the humble Shire.

A way to connect with the world: animals, nature, beauty

14 There are grand places in the earth that are spectacular natural places by virtue of their geological or geographic wonder andbeauty. But there are places that also have biological and natural grandeur and beauty. Teaming seas, reefs, lakes. Savannahs teaming with life, forests, groves, glades, green jungles. Africa, Madagascar, Alaska, the Redwood Forests, Yosemite. The Canadian Rockies. Tierra del Fuego.

Many of us on lockdown were forced to pay attention to nature in little slices of plants and animals near our home quarantines. This let us pay attention and connect to the wider world of life and the rhythms of the planet through small and quiet windows. Travel can connect us to the wide world of plants and animals, in need of service and stewardship, scholarship and understanding, as well as human care.

15 New Zealand and walkabout Australia dreamtime. For seeking the deeper spiritual connection to the land, and the spirits of the ancestors. The Hopi and Pueblo ancestors also did extraordinary extended pilgrimages, walkabouts in the wide, wide West.

16 Japanese Inns that have been in business for a millennium must be doing something right. Ancient hot springs, healing peace of mind tranquility hospitality- in this case natural spots recognized to have special restorative, and even spiritual qualities. Relaxation is next to Godliness, or the spirits.

8 Build back better- return to normal or travel to a new normal? Travel as inspiration

So much of travel of the travel industry is about consumption- experiences that are titillating or addictive- gambling, shopping, consuming, motion without deep purpose, meaning, or connection. Building back better in travel would bring us opportunities that are more powerful, uplifting, transformative. Not just relaxation but re-creation. Not diversion but inspiration.

Building travel back better that is more conscientious climate change and green- no more travel as part of an “extractive” industry-climate impacts, economic impacts, sight seeing, tourism, status seeking.

17 Arcosanti in Arizona, a futurism community in the desert, intentional communities and older visions of the intentional future- by Quaker/Shaker/Moravian idealists. Lutheran, Methodist, Calvinist Protestants, Sufi pilgrims.

18 New Zealand,Geneva, Switzerland, San Franciso-Berkeley. Boston. Places that celebrate independence and freedom from despotism, authoritarianism. That stand for human rights and freedom:

Anti-authoritarian, not supporting the status quo, not supporting imperialism, colonialism, fascism. Providing independence, refuge, safety, freedom from persecution. Freedom means individual and social freedom from authoritarianism, far Right nationalism. Europe’s perennial fight with authoritarianism, imperialism, and fascism. Voltaire, Rousseau, Calvin, Luther, revolutionaries.

Travel for education and self enrichment- in the footsteps of the great great civilizations:

19 The seven wonders- wonders of the ancient world, ancestral civilizations and perennial truths and wisdom. as well as classic great civilizations: Egypt, Persia, Iraq, China. Niagara and Victoria Falls. The great rivers Nile, Mississippi, Amazon. Wide seas, the highest mountains.

20 Athens, Greece, the Vatican/Rome, birthplaces of Western Civilization, but also Western-style imperialism, and likewise the Roman Catholic Church- dual pilgrimages. Aleppo, Beirut, Damascus, Beijing, Ankara, Luxor.

9 Travel as service- amends, restorative justice

Travel for service, and giving back Instead of asking what we can gain from travel- insight, experience, inspiration, education, expansion, we can travel as a means of giving and service: hospital ships, build houses, peace corps, Medecins Sans Frontiers, NGO’s, cultural and educational exchange,

21 Mother Theresa in Calcutta, naturalists in Africa, missionaries and environmentalists in Brazil.

22 visit with the “enemy”; cultural exchange with Russia, Iran, China, Cuba, Venezuela.

10 the inner journey- silence, time alone in community,

Where goest thou, then? Has this sparked the wanderlust in you for a well-planned, targeted journey?

Sadly- perhaps?- it will not be until mid- 2021 or even to the end of the year until we can travel more freely. It will be mid- 2022 until vaccines widely available and safe in the developed world, and travel restrictions will lift for those who can prove they’ve been vaccinated- so most of us are not going anywhere safely any time soon. But this may not be a bad thing.

Another half of a year of self-quarantine may give you time to reflect and prepare for the next journey onward mindfully, intentionally, and well prepared. What you can do in your own inner monastic experience in 2021, while awaiting the vaccine and freedom to travel about in the outer world? Practice making a journey first in the inner world. Many of the most interesting places, spiritual destinations, and pilgrimages aren’t likely to be safe for years.

Until then, the journey will be the timeless one of the inner journey, without escape or the temptation of escapes in the outer wide world. Millions are dying and tens of millions are sick. Will you need a journey of grief, introspection, and sadness, to where a loved one died alone, or lived, or is buried?

Do you need healing yourself? A pilgrimage to places of healing? Not the least of injuries from the Pandemic will be PTSD and a wounded sense of mortality, and moral outrage.

A journey of inspiration?

Will you take a pilgrimage to offer thanksgiving and offerings of praise for your life and survival? To respond to a vow made at the edge of life and desperation? prepare for pilgrimages of thanksgiving, inspiration, repentance, service, remembrance, recommitment to life, grief at loss, impending death.

What is necessary for the inner journey which must precede the next well thought, and prayed over journey into the wide post-pandemic world?

• A place to meditate, pray, listen, write
• A calm place free from noise, or calming noise like a cafe, social distanced, masked,
• blank pages of a travelers journal, blank screens and a new computer file? A bible, a good book.
• Many congregations are now available via wifi, likewise many forms of virtual support groups

Silver lining- work, and much more of the wider world is now available online- this will mean in the future fewer of us travelers will be tied to workplaces if we want to roam.

After out long brush with death, personal and herd, shows us whats really important: functioning good governance, truth and science, and the freedom to hit the road, and cross artificial boundaries.

Travel well. Use this precious time for the inner travel, and then appreciate your travel in the wider world- with the right type of travel the right goals, the right destination, and the right travel-mind when the time comes to move about freely and safely, as is the human birthright.