A GLIMPSE OF PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS

Te Ao Hou, September 1960, Page 31

A GLIMPSE OF PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS BY ARAPERA BLANK Mrs Blank, well-known to readers of Te Ao Hou, is at present visiting Europe with her Swiss-born husband. I am always hesitant about venturing into strange places. I dislike the idea of leaving a haven of security for a place that may be insecure. But once I have been persuaded of the excitement of exotic travel it is not long before I overcome this feeling. Travelling through strange places is perhaps a little like falling in love. One may have certain ideals about marriage and partnership in marriage, but when one does fall in love ideologies lose their significance in the ecstatic bewilderment of overwhelming feeling. The excitement, the novelty of this feeling is to me akin to that felt at the sight of new places, new faces, and the sound of exotic languages. There is something definable about travel; it is rejuvenating. It gives us a chance to see, to hear, and to feel life in its complexity. You see places you like or dislike instantly. You hear the musical flow of a contended people, or the dull thud of another's discontent. You feel the strength, the weakness, the warmth, or the cold climate of a people's life. Yes! And you smell strange smells—bewildering, intoxicating, haunting. And out of this definable confusion comes a slow appreciation of people, places and things. I bless civilization for one important contribution: communication. What would we do without it? We all know it has made the world grow smaller. Why? I don't have to dream of a magic carpet to carry me to strange places—I can earn enough money for a second-class passage on a comfortable boat and I know I don't just see the world through a looking glass, but face to face. “A small world can be a dangerous place to live in”, my husband says, “for one can see the whole of it through the looking-glass of television, or of someone else's opinions, from books and magazines.” So if you are sensitive to what my husband says, don't look through the looking glass, but use your hands, your feet, your eyes, your ears and your sense of smell; use this avenue of communication, travel on a big boat or in a fast aeroplane—feel the world at your feet. I have only begun my travels. I have been away from New Zealand for four months. I cannot say that I am an impartial thinker, but at least I can say that I have gained in awareness of the richness and diversity of life.