I like the story, but that's not why I'm posting here. Or I suppose it is, but a little more indirectly. What I want to talk about more is the wanderlust attitude that seems to have been with us (and by that I mean Americans) since the 60's that shapes this story.
As a member of Generation Y not even of drinking age, I am amazed at how much I keep hearing this drive to be doers, creators, builders, explorers. I definitely have this dream. I like to pretend I'm a writer by scribbling notes down for stories and then never actually building on them. I like to pretend I'm a scientist because I work an internship in a lab while I'm applying to medical school. I like to pretend I'm a theologian because I talk with my friends about items of a spiritual natures, go to church, and read certain books. But the question that this generation seems to be drenched in is "Who am I, really?"
Traveling has always seem like a way to answer this. "I'm an explorer. I've seen the world; I know how it turns." When the world is mapped out what do you do? Our dreams turn to art and engineering... but still we explore, or at least we want to explore. Because now we see the world and we want to see it for ourselves. And now more than ever we are capable of it.
Mine is a generation drowning in information. I can buy a hard drive to store a terabyte of data. Depending on what source you are looking at the human brain is estimated to hold about 6 terabytes to 2.5 petabytes of data. But I can have for myself a whole terabyte, more than that. I could probably fill my life's worth of photo albums on that. So with all this information flowing around us, washing over us, inundating us in every minute of our waking lives (I mean you're already on the internet looking at this after listening to a podcast), we feel connected. But (correct me if I'm wrong here) it also makes us feel so far away. I don't have to walk up the street to talk to my friends, I send them a text instead. It feels harder and harder to do things because we make it so easy to sit tucked away from it all.
We can explore the world from behind a computer screen. But it leaves us empty. And when we explore we complete the dream of being a doer and we become one. Because while it's fine and good to see the world, it's another thing entirely to experience it. So yes, I really like this story because I see it as a challenge to break free of just being a dreamer. But there still needs to be that caution, once you leave you can never go back. Once you've seen the sun, there's no place for you in the cave anymore.
Sorry for the long post. I told you I like to pretend I'm a writer.