Drifting excursions to know-ware land

Journeys are strange things. It’s been said we’re on one the day we’re born to the day we pass on. But that’s too simple a way to describe life. Way too much happens in between and the layers to that story are as delicate as millefeuille.

Take a story I read recently about a guy who was separated from his surfboard in big swell somewhere in Hawaii. He never gave up hope of one day being reunited with it. Years later, his beloved big-wave board washed up in the Philippines, some 8,300 kilometres away!

“I ran from one end of Waimea Bay across to the other side and scaled the rocks trying to get a visual until it was completely dark,” he wrote on his Facebook page when he lost the board, adding that it was really upsetting because he’d ridden some of his best waves on it.

Thanks to the distinctive markings on the board and some social media sleuthing the guy received word that his drifting board had found a new owner, a novice surfer in the Philippines. Important as the thing was to him, the surfer was just happy his board had found a new home. It gave him some closure, I guess. The board’s two owners are now Facebook friends and may one day meet in person to discuss their passion for the sport. At least that was the gist of the tale.

While perhaps lacking Homeresque qualities, this story tells me one thing for sure. The things we hold dear are sometimes cast adrift. They, like us, take excursions. Sometimes we’re reunited with them, but not in the way we imagined. Sometimes we just have to move on. But never do we forget what these life objects mean to us in the biggest of journeys.

Away from the deep end

Backstroking away from the deep end of the pool, there is a less prescient and more current interpretation of this story. Every day, people are embarking on their version of an excursion… from the burdens of guilt, from social anxiety, from work pressures, from physical pain, from substance abuse, from the boredom of stay-home life…

Adrift on the internet waves they seek refuge in ‘know-ware land’ a near and dear substitute for many of these so-called ‘deep-end travellers’, especially digital natives who’ve grown up sharing, playing, and socialising online anyway. For way too many, though, a lonely void has formed. Their yearning for new sensations grows stronger. To smell the spices of India, to ride spitting camels in the Sahara, to marvel at Vesuvius’ gassy plumes, to feel the tickle of bubbles in Champagne… being able to move around in the physical world, to visit museums, stay in hotels, and see the marquis sites that fill many a bucket list, such freedom and joy feels an eternity away.

But we do have stories to fill the time and replenish our faith. We have missives from those who never cease dreaming. We have true friends who swim towards an attacking shark to save you. We have colleagues who cheer us up every day with their smiles. We have dogs who greet us with pure love and excitement ten times a day! And of course, we have stories of drifting surfboards that find a home on the other side of the planet, making two people happier than they were the day before.

[September 2020 – Written in Bruges and Ypres during the author’s deep-end travels respecting Covid-19 conditions in Belgium at the time. Picture (left): Scene of WWI destruction, Zonnebeek, Belgium - author's rendition of display at Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917. Picture cover: Tourism battles on in Bruges - author's photo on tour]