Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Poking the World with a Stick, or how this blog was titled

In high school senior year English class, we read an essay entitled "Loss of the Creature" by Walker Percy. This philosophical work argues that worldly influences cause us to lose "sovereignty" and we begin to base all our experiences on expectations. In the essay, a boy finds a dogfish on a beach and pokes at it, learning more about the dogfish than a student in the classroom.

The point of this diatribe is that I want to explore the world with a sense of wonder. I have expectations of all the places I am going, heavy research into what to do, where to go, where to stay, but when it comes down to it, all I should be doing is poking it with a stick.


I've also previously posted in both my personal blog and a Europe trip with friends. Check those out too!

1 comment:

  1. Oh, Loss of the Creature! I am ashamed of myself for not recognizing the title of this when I first saw it. I just told Chris, April, and Ben about how Loss of the Creature was one of the most influential philosophical essays of all time for me.

    Exciting! I love travel blogs.

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