Self Reliance

"Traveling is a fools paradise"

Upon reading this quote, i felt as if it was talking about people who travel to escape their every day problems, stresses and what not. I feel that at some point, everyone has thought about doing this, Not just physically but mentally as well. What emerson is saying, is that people often find themseves in situations where they simply want to forget about their lives, and run from their problems. The logical way to do this would be to travel somewhere far away, where your problems would be forgotten. However, the truth is one can never escape their thoughts, no matter where one is, the same problems will be with you until you decide to turn back and face them. This means that emotions are senseless as to where one is in the world. For example living in California and traveling to Europe solely to forget about your past will be a failure. One cannot tell their emotions and thoughts to simply go away, or to be on hold until one gets back from vacation. This quote was very interesting because it does something unique by emphasizing that reality cannot be escaped. "Traveling is a fools paradise" because the idea that one can run away from their problems by traveling to a different country is simply a fantasy.