Just Us
Inspired by the words of the actor and musician, Riz Ahmed during his Academy acceptance speech for the live-action short film, ‘The Last Goodbye,’ I’ve been reminded of the reason why, at its very essence, I love to travel. In front of his peers and televised in a speech broadcast to those watching across the world, Ahmed said “In such divided times, we believe the role of story is to remind us there is no ‘us’ and ‘them.’ There is just ‘us.”
Travelling reminds us of the very same and simple fact. And when we return home, and recount our adventurous stories to others, we become storytellers and remind others of this simple fact too.
I cannot count the number of times I have been shown the generosity of people during my travels. In Chile, I was invited to dinner with a family, who served deer and wine all night while in a remote village in Patagonia, where I waited for the next bus to pass through the town the next day. In Paraguay, during an annual Easter procession, lit by kilometres of lanterns, a family invited me to stay with them in their home once I got to the capital city. In Indonesia, whilst standing like a drowned rat outside in a monsoonal rain, a family invited me inside their store and then home to serve dinner and offer a bed for the night. The list goes on and on, and on. Many may think it’s naïve to accept this of kindness from strangers. In most cases, I wasn’t alone and was travelling with my partner or with a friend at the time. And of course, I always highly recommend keeping your wits and trusting your gut. Nevertheless, these experiences always remind me of the kindness of people.
Most people, like you and I, share similar dreams. We wish to be loved and to love, we wish to be happy and to see our family and friends happy, we wish to provide for others and ourselves and we wish to laugh. We wish to pay our rent or mortgage, we wish to eat many good meals, and of course, we wish to live a life we can be content and proud of.
Travelling and the many people you meet along the way, reminds us that we have a lot more in common with one another. Travelling and the stories that come from it, reminds us that there is just ‘us.’
