#23 The Joy of Mindful Roaming
Reflecting on the bittersweet moments of wandering, seeking shelter, and finding a sense of belonging.
Man is without root and stem,
Adrift is like road dust;
Battered and shattered by the gale,
Soon he ceases to be himself.
Born we are all brothers,
Need we be related by blood?
Make merry when there’s occasion for joy,
Call in your neighbors when there is wine.
Youth comes once in a lifetime,
Never did a day dawn twice.
Make hay before the weather breaks,
Time waits for no one.
— Tao Yuanming (365-427 AD)
I have been thinking about the idea of “exodus” for some time. My reference to this term is focused on both a spiritual and physical sense rather than the biblical and religious aspects. If we consider migration a recurring phenomenon throughout history, there is no doubt that it is a common theme across cultures and a shared human experience.
In other words, I am reflecting on the quest to find shelter and a sense of belonging. Exodus takes on different dimensions in today’s world. We see international students leave their homelands seeking better futures, often without the intention to return. Immigrants and refugees, forced to abandon their homes due to persecution or wars, search for a place where they can rebuild their lives.
There always exists a gap between the new “shelter” and the homeland where people get uprooted. A spiritual emptiness, temporary for some but may be prolonged for others, can seize upon people unexpectedly. In this sense, this search for shelter is not merely a physical need but a profound journey toward understanding the fundamental meaning of life in the face of our temporary existence in this life.
Be the light in times of darkness
The year 1929 was unusual for the German author Thomas Mann. Because of his exemplary literary works, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature that year. Yet, as an outspoken critic of the Nazis, Mann gradually found himself increasingly at odds with the rapid turn of political development in Germany.
Eventually, the political climate turned in the Nazi’s favor in 1933. After its rise to power, many intellectuals had already felt the shrinking of freedom in Germany.
While on a lecture tour in Switzerland that year, Mann finally decided not to return to Germany. After his exile in Switzerland, he stated, “Where I am, there is Germany. I carry my German culture within me, and wherever I am, there is my country."
A few years after being stripped of his German citizenship in 1936, Mann and his family found a new home in the U.S. in 1938. And he was very much involved in efforts to fight the Nazi regime in his own way. During the Second World War, Mann participated in anti-Nazi broadcasts for the BBC.
While displaced from his home country, Mann became part of a vibrant community of intellectual exiles in Los Angeles. This was his way of preserving his cultural identity when it seemed hope had been lost in his homeland.
Uncompromised, unbent, unbound
One day, when Chuang Tzu was finishing in the Pu river, the King of Chu sent two officials to visit him with a message. The message said, “I would like to trouble you with the administration of my realm.”
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