The instinctual explorer within us draws us to move and to create adventure. Our hunter gatherer ancestors continually meandered from settlement to settlement for the survival of the tribe. After the land had provided what it could for the time, movement to a new location was routine in this cyclical process to allow for the earth to regenerate in order to be a continuous provider. As seasons changed, migration was essential to find places more habitable, just as naturally as the birds fly south for the winter time to eventually return in time for the more amicable climate. Movement saved our ancestors and ensured our existence today. The desire for travel sits deep within our primeval connection to our forefathers. Naturally, to compliment this instinctual habit of movement, humans have continuously used their initiative and creativity to move themselves in more and more efficient ways. The wheel turned into carts; horses, donkeys and camels transformed forests and deserts from mysterious and unknown dangers into lands of possibility. Cars and planes continue to make the world a smaller, more connected place. When we take a trip with a car we are in fact not at all so different from the movement once initiated by our ancestors, only the medium of travel is more modernised. A road trip can therefore fulfil within us an instinctual survival need to explore unknown lands.
Driving provides further benefits to the humans mental and emotional state. Driving is and has become a significant symbol in our culture. Literature classics like 'On the Road' portray the freedom and potential adventure that lies ahead somewhere down the road. Landscape passes by like running water in a stream to reassure us that life too goes on and troubles pass and reminds us that life too is temporary; to therefore cherish the moment you are in before it passes you by. The open road is a form of therapy. Either the barren landscape cleans the mind of those useless thoughts that keep lingering within you or the stimulating scenery will distract you from them for a little while. Driving connects you to more than the land. It can connect yourself back to you. Exposing yourself to a constant stream of unknown roads and places you give yourself a great chance to put your own life in perspective. Your troubles do not seem so overwhelming when you are just a mere car out of many on a road out of millions. Road trips provide you with the space, time and solitude to reflect on yourself and let those thoughts sit with you to then be processed and later discarded behind you as the only direction you look is forward. You may let go of those energies that no longer serve you and let them fly away in the wind outside your car window.
When driving at night we must accept that we can only know how the road will look like a few meters down; as much as the headlights will light. Similarly in life we must learn to accept that we can not predict the future and should not let it absorb us in its vast unfamiliarity. Life will inevitably have dynamic and unexpected twists and turns and the more we learn to roll with the punches the more resilient we will be. We can learn to make the best out of unexpected situations. Who knows, we may even learn to thrive from them.
