Interview with Seneca: Travel won't save you 🏝
Travel is the silver bullet that solves all problems. Want a new perspective? Go travel. Want new friends? Go travel. Feeling unsatisfied with your life? Go travel. Have no idea what you’re doing? Go travel.
So I traveled.
And when it didn’t solve all my problems, I went to stoic philosopher Seneca for the answers.
(Read on the website directly here)
DKB: I went backpacking around Europe recently, and did a lot of travel. I thought it would help me clear my mind, and figure my life out. But I still feel mostly the same.
Seneca: Do you think you’re the only one who’s had this experience?
Are you surprised that after seeing all these different scenes, you haven’t been able to solve your mental problems?
You need a change of soul, not a change of climate. You might cross over vast spaces of land and sea, but as Virgil says, “Lands and cities are left behind, but your faults will follow you wherever you travel.”
Socrates said the same thing to someone who complained to him: “Why do you wonder that globe-trotting does not help you, seeing that you always take yourself with you? The reason which set you wandering is ever at your heels.”
It would be quite a blessing for some people to wander away from themselves. As it is, they cause themselves worry, demoralization, anger, and fear. You don’t need another place, but another personality.
What pleasure is there in seeing new lands? Or in taking instagram pictures in different tourist spots?
All of your moving around is useless. You have to lay aside the burdens of the mind.
Until you do this, no place will satisfy you.
DKB: That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think? When you travel you can see things you’ve never seen before, experience new cultures, and gain a new perspective on life.
I’m sure it helps some people, even if it didn’t work for me. I probably just didn’t do it right.
Seneca: Really? What benefit has travel itself ever been able to give anyone?
Travel doesn’t help us moderate pleasures, restrain our desires, or control our bad temper. It can’t give us better judgment, and provides no opportunity to heal our minds.
All it does is distract us for a little while, through the novelty of our surroundings, like children fascinated by something they’ve never seen before.
You get to see beautiful mountains, stunning architecture, and all the wonders of the world. But none of this will help you become a better person, or solve your inner problems.
A sick man needs medicine, not scenery. If someone breaks their leg, they don’t take a vacation to solve it, they call in a doctor to fix it. When your mind is broken, do you really think you can fix it with a change of location?
Travel as far as you like, but you still won’t escape desire, fear, anger, and all of your other mental problems. If it was that easy, the whole human race would have just hopped on a boat together, sailed off to an exotic island, and lived happily ever after.
Travel can’t save you.
DKB: What do you expect me to do then? How do I get a fresh perspective to figure my life out?
Seneca: If you really want to change your perspective and heal your mind, then change your company, not your scenery. You are the people who you surround yourself with, so surround yourself with better people.
You can do this with real people, but you can also do this with books. Reading a book is like bringing the author back to life and spending time with them.
So fill your life with better friends. Spend your time with wise people of the past like Socrates, Pythagoras, and Zeno. They will give you knowledge of humanity and the universe. They will teach you how to live, and how to die. They will give you powerful perspectives for finding your own way.
They will also teach you to be strong, and brace against whatever comes at you. The only safe harbor in the storms of life is to refuse to be bothered about what the future will bring, and to stand ready and confident, preparing to take whatever life throws at you without flinching.
Once you solve your inner problems, all the changes of scenery will become genuinely enjoyable. Right now you aren’t really journeying, you’re drifting and being driven, exchanging one place for another.
What you really seek – to live well – can be found anywhere.
If you made it all the way to the end, send me a message and let me know what you thought of it.
Your replies give me life.
much love,
dkb