In his book, Courage to Teach, Parker Palmer quotes Camus in reference to the fear we often encounter in teaching. Camus is referring to his views on travel, and as I was processing an Italy trip in 2007, I found the words of Camus crystallized my thoughts.
"When Albert Camus writes, "What gives value to travel is fear,' his words could easily apply to the forays that good teachers make with their students across landscapes of alien truth. Camus speaks of the fear we feel when we encounter something foreign and are challenged to enlarge our thinking, our identity, our lives -- the fear that lets us know we are on the brink of real learning: 'It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country....we are seized by a vague fear, and an instinctive desire to go back to the protection of old habits... At that moment we are feverish but also porous, so that the slightest touch makes us quiver to the depths of our being. We come across a cascade of light, and there is eternity.' "
I really latched onto the idea that travel electrified my thinking and my own identity. Travel does make me feel porous -- like I can absorb so much about other people and places and their lives. Somehow it all matters, and I understand myself better. Porous is the perfect word. I can absorb it all, and then while it's soaked in I can think about the parts that concern or interest me and squeeze out the rest.
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