"No matter where you go, there you are."
I really loved that saying the first time I heard it some twenty-five or twenty-six (twenty-seven?) years ago. It still appeals to me despite the feel good, warm and fuzzy New-Age-ishness about it. My apologies to those who are into New Age. I know, we may not agree but let's disagree agreeably, and so I will. Or to put it succinctly, I will not be an asshole about it.
I just asked Uncle Google and there is nothing certain about the origin of the phrase. And instead of dismissing it as New Age nonsense (and not all things New Age are nonsense and this is a Christian talking!) I have long been aware and intrigued of the be-here-now truth and truthiness about "No matter where you go, there you are. It is truthy, it is a truism and it is true. Not all things succeed in being all three.
It is truthy because it sounds like it is full of pith and essence but doesn't necessarily promise to deliver. One has to think of this phrase for a while, it's be here now-ness. Who and what we are is never really changed by the fact of where we are, whom we are with, or what we are doing. We will be influenced of course and impacted and yes I think we are all natural chameleons who will change our skin whatever way we can to fit in and adapt. There is something about our essence that never really changes though. I am referring to that still dark centre that envelops and obscures the light we all carry within.
It is also a truism in that it has been quoted for so long, so often and by so many that it now has the ring of truth to it, without necessarily being the truth. This is what happens whenever a profound and eloquent gem falls into common usage and becomes rather cheapened by its popularity. Rather like the way we would cease to value diamonds or rubies or sapphires or emeralds if they were suddenly universally available and cheap and available in Walmart.
Regardless of where I live, there I am. Regardless of where I am working, there I am. No matter where I travel to, there I am. I have especially found this to be true in my experiences of foreign travel. In Mexico City I was just as likely to find myself in the middle of a mass demonstration, riot police included, as I am in Vancouver. In Costa Rica I was wowed and held spellbound by the power of nature and the wonder of biodiversity just as I am here on the west coast of Canada. Costa Rica has of course a much richer biodiversity, but nothing there compares to the smell and the cool fragrance of our evergreen forests, and nothing in our forests here can hold a match to the wonderful cloud forest of Monteverde. In London and Amsterdam I also found myself every bit as capable of getting into incredibly messy and complex jams and at times barely escaping with my life, just like here in my familiar old Vancouver where I have argued with police and other authority figures with the same eloquence and scorn as I have reserved for obnoxious customs officials.
Every time I have returned from one of these trips I have always felt exactly the same person as the one who flew off. Only more so.
No matter where you are, there you go!
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