athleticsirene

[athleticsirene]

“I know one thing; that I know nothing.”

I sit on the bed brushing my wet hair, feeling the cold water on my hands. On the wall in front of me is a world map on which the oceans are white, and the land a metallic gold. I am tempted to take a coin and scratch off the sheet of gold on the countries in which I’ve been. I get closer, my interest growing, and while reading their names, I notice the fine lines that separate those countries.

And then, my mouth opened just a little bit. I stared in awe at the size of each country. I had only been to one, or in rare cases two cities in the countries that I had visited. That meant that if I would scratch off where I’d been, I would barely be able to hit the correct spots with the rounded sides of a coin without hitting places that I haven’t been to. This lead me to a thought.

It is well known that during prehistoric times humans moved in packs to better their chances of survival. As time progressed and humanity evolved, these prehistoric “survival packs” became partialy irrelevant. However, it is wired in our brains that being included in a certain group is vital, and when that’s not the case the average person will feel lonely, unhappy. Therefore, people stayed in groups, small or large, in which all the members associated with a common factor (e.g.: church, king, etc...). Anyhow, during the 1800s, the industrial revolution prompted the educational and emotional enlightenment of the majorities, whom began to dig into their past. People of the same and of different crowds found common histories, cultures, and beliefs. After series of wars and revolutions, each distinct crowd became a country, the people linked by their common past. 

Each country has astonishing variations and amounts of cultures that dictate it’s way of life. Every country’s unique culture diverges of that of other people’s. In fact, there are countless deviations within each country. And somehow, in a world with seven billion people, each and every one of the billions and billions of cultures is practiced and maintained by people who feel that their way of life is unique. I sit on the bed absorbed in my thoughts, my human brain unable to grasp these strikingly monumental proportions. Who am I to discredit these people rather than appreciate their singularity?

I am incredibly lucky to be alive, to think, to wonder, to look, to read. I am even luckier to be blessed with freedom. That is one of the reasons why I must travel to all of these places before I die. Who’s to say that I’ll die old and I’ll have time? I only have one life, and I plan on chasing my dreams and making the best of it! Our times give us the gift of opportunity to learn from billions of different points of view, feeding our own, and eventually passing the wisdom on. No matter how much I travel, how much I study, how much I read, listen, walk, I will always know very, very little. Ignorance is inevitable when the amount to be known is impossible for the brain to grasp. 

As I continue to stare, stupefied, I consider traveling to separate areas of the world one at a time, obviously when I’m on a break from training (usually every August), and with company. I wish to go all over South America, filling each day of my visit with exploring in order to see the whole continent during the short month that I’ll have. I want to travel around Africa and Asia as well. I hope that one day I’ll be able to travel to Arab countries and Iran and see them for myself. My Israeli nationality is problematic in this aspect. I love both of my countries, Israel and Bulgaria, and I hope that all of the conficts in the Middle East and the world will be resolved as soon as possible, for the sake of life and humanity. 

Everything is yet to be planned.