We’ve been told there’s little left to discover. The entire world has been mapped, snapped and globally positioned. But satellite pictures don’t carry the smell of the morning breeze on Inle Lake in Myanmar (Burma). Nor does an app offer the scratch of pine boughs, the sweaty satisfaction of final uphill steps or the simple delights of wonder.
Exploring outside matters precisely because it is hard, inconvenient, uncomfortable and uncertain. Complacency, habits of mind and mental dullness start to crumble under the pressures of the road or trail.
When wandering we have to summon resources of courage that lie untapped here at home. On the move we take nothing for granted, and we know we’re alive. It just doesn’t look right on a screen.