Last night, I watched the movie, 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.' It's a great flick, and easily one of my new favorites. It's one of the few movies out there I can watch more than once and not get bored with, not to mention, it has an absolutely perfect soundtrack to go with it. Essentially, the movie is about a man named Walter who works for Life Magazine. He spends his days day dreaming a lot because he doesn't do anything exciting in real life, except work, until he loses an important photo for Life's final print magazine cover. He ends up traveling to Greenland, Iceland and the Himalayas searching for this photo, battling sharks, drunk helicopter pilots and volcanos along the way. Needless to say, his life goes from boring to full-on pretty quickly. It's a great reminder that 'Life' doesn't have to be a boring routine, and that it can be an epic adventure at any moment. All it takes is a few leaps of faith. Anyway, anytime I watch this movie, it makes me want to stop whatever I'm doing and get on the next flight possible leaving the nearest airport, which can be both healthy and unhealthy. It does another thing too. It makes me dream of what I think I want my life to look like.
I think if I had a dream life it might look something like this:
Seeing the world and meeting the people in the world would be the highlight. The jobs I would have would be temp jobs that wouldn't require a long-term commitment but paid enough to have a small apartment. I'd be able to work until I'd saved enough money to travel to a new place. Then, I'd sell/give away some more of the stuff I'd acquired, move on and start the process all over again. I wouldn't really want to own a lot, maybe just a couple of suitcases of clothes- one for winter and one for summer, a laptop for writing, a camera for pictures, a few books and a phone to stay in touch. And an orange VW van. Definitely an orange VW van.
The trouble with this dream life is that it doesn't seem plausible. It doesn't really provide any way to get health insurance, have a family or prepare for any sort of retirement. Not to mention, there isn't really any guarantee of a new job each and every time I want to find another one after a stent of traveling. It also seems kind of selfish because it all centers on me.
Living a life full of traveling, telling people about Jesus, seeing the world, writing, taking photos and working in temp jobs sounds like a dream, but is it? Sure, it would be the perfect life to live if I wanted to match it up perfectly with the ultimate Indie playlist on Spotify, but how realistic of a life is it, not just for me but for those around me? After all, mom and dad won't always be around to cover my back if things don't go according to plan. I'm not sure, but a life like this seems a little iffy.
I'm not sure what exactly shaped this life dream of mine that lacks permanence and realism. Maybe it's the fact I just have the travel bug, or maybe it's something deeper. Maybe it's because, in the words of Switchfoot, "I'm just looking for a world where I belong." I think I'm at a stage in life where I'm still trying to figure life out. I'm at a stage in life where I'm learning that this world really isn't my home, and no matter how many places I live or how many times I scratch my travel itch, I'm still going to have that refugee feeling in my soul. I'm still going to have that unfilled feeling of not belonging that only eternity will be able to fulfill. Until then, I'm still going to have these unrealistic dreams of traveling/living that are unrealistic because the reality is, traveling the world and seeing it all doesn't ultimately satisfy one's heart's desire. My ultimate heart desire can only be met one day in eternity when I finally enter a world I belong in with my Creator. Then, maybe then, my travel itch won't itch any more.
-Cliff
Cliff's Note: Don't watch 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' unless you want to get the urge to drop whatever you're doing and get on a plan and go to Greenland.