卷首語
作者：
One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.
—Henry Miller
I've heard that a rolling stone gathers no moss. Now, whether this proverb is meant to instil fear—"settle down or risk instability"—or encouragement—"accepting change will keep life interesting"—is debatable. The non-debatable part is that I have embodied this idiom since the end of 2007. From Belgium to Malaysia, Turkey to China, I have been that proverbial stone without its moss for a long time. But is this good, or bad? Am I an aimless floater, or is there a point to all my drifting?
At first, perhaps, it seemed I had thrown myself to the wind with the sentiments, "Let the road take me where it will!" Not unlike a message in a bottle, tossed into the sea, I had no purpose, no final destination—just the hope that I might one day find or be found (check out The History of Messages in Bottles). Of course, not all who are lost want to be found, and I Found a Message in a Bottle tells the story of one woman who discovered someone that wasn't looking to be found. So what should we do in this situation?
Why, make friends with them, of course. Like a book that's too good not to pass on (Read a Book and Then Set It Free), communicating and sharing with people helps us to discover what's really worth knowing. When we reach out to those we don't know, we perceive who we truly are, and when we really begin to connect with others, we are overwhelmed by all that comes our way. Our last piece this month, Couch Surfing from New York to Nevada, focuses on what it means to relinquish your hold on travel plans and hand yourself over to the expertise of those strangers who know best—the locals.