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Unique Experiences -The Search for Glory

Writer's picture: Kirk Kirk

I love unique things. When I travel I seek out places that are new to me as well as people who are new. When I travel solo I have many unique encounters. Not all of them are memorable or worth writing about, yet still unique to me. It is the reason I like solo travel. If I travel with someone else, I would likely stay within my comfort zone and not get out and interact. I would just play it safe. But solo travel makes me interact or I will suffer weeks of loneliness.


I’ve gotten spoiled by the expectation of uniqueness now. I can’t even watch many movies anymore because I get so bored with the cookie cutter versions Hollywood puts out. Not wanting to take a chance, they rely on formulas of success that have made them money in the past. The result is the same old predictable plots and endings with even cookie cut actor lines you could write yourself.


I find the same in books as well. No one taking chances out there. When I say books I mean even scientific books. I’ve read a lot from prominent physicists around the world and I find scientists are not big risk takers. Not even the theoretical physicists who you would think would be risk takers. They simply rehash the same theories with few breaking new ground.


As a case in point, I’ve read a lot of books and chapters of books on the subject of time, but I think over 90% of them give entropy the nod when it comes to setting the arrow of time. Since the universe started in a low entropy state and continues to increase in entropy, in the same direction as time, that has been pegged as the reason for time’s one way flow, even though mathematically it is easy to reverse time. To me, that lacks imagination. Scientists learning the theory as fact and regurgitating what could be trash knowledge. Why can’t we just as easily accept that entropy is resultant from time and not the cause?


People don’t like to take chances, that’s why. Nobody wants to appear the fool. It can be very uncomfortable in new territory, especially if you are all lone out there looking the fool. So people stay in their comfort zone whether it be making movies, writing books, teaching physics, or traveling.


But it’s done with absence of glory. I know you may read this and think, so what? Most people are not in search of glory. That’s a noble enough statement. But from my experiences, glory is the icing of life.


The theoretical physicist who sticks with the same route will never win a noble prize. They’ll never have firm recognition among their peer group either.


The mundane movies put out there that are carbon copies of movies past, will never (correction: should never) be recognized with Academy Awards.


If you look at the billionaires of the world, if they didn’t inherit, they were risk takers or it was inherited from a risk taker. They found their glory by getting outside the normal routines.


I’m not talented enough to find my glory in any of those routes. So the only thing left for glory for me is found in the glorious moments this world has to offer. Whether it be watching a sunset over the Dead Sea, a sunrise in the Himalayas, floating down a remote river in Borneo, fishing for Pirhana in the Amazon, dining with locals in Thailand or China, walking the Great Wall, or standing in Devil’s Throat in Argentina or before Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. These are the only moments of glory reserved for me.


These are stand out moments that put the icing on the cake, for me anyway. My glory. But this is only my perspective and in no way a blanket statement for all people. Each find their pleasures and glory in their own reference frame.



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Mike Wells
Mike Wells
Jun 12, 2024
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

It's great that you find travel a way to get out into the world . Most people that travel overseas go for business. They interact with just a few people in a group. You explore the less fortunate or the lower class. These people are just as important as all the others that you have mentioned. Much better reading

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Kirk
Kirk
Jun 12, 2024
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Thanks for reading Mike!

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