The beginnings of a study

When I did my MA in the History of Ideas at Birkbeck College, Univ. of London, I was never one of those people who would claim that I was interested in a subject purely because I found it 'interesting' in itself, but would always delve into a new book, thinker or angle with the expectation that I could use it to understand my own self better.

When doing so, I would tend to travel away from my current actual physical setting in my search for enlightenment. For instance, I would always try to find subjects to write essays about where I could use my language skills, not just to show off, but to dress myself in the experience of another language with its different physical, philosophical, social settings.

In this way, I would envelop myself with Bakhtin in Russian, with Bougainville, Rousseau and Hadot in French and with Goethe in German. Since I was originally born and brought up in Denmark, it could be said that my being and studying in London was in itself simply another layer of seeking self development through this sort of mental travel by means of foreign language.

After I finished my studies in the autumn of 2008, I felt a great need to leave the books behind for a while and spend the money and time made available by not having to pay fees and write essays, on travelling.
I travelled to California and Oregon for two weeks; took some short trips to France with my bicycle and a tent, went sailing for a week on an old gaff rigged cutter and generally tried to move as much physically during the weekends when I was free from the physical constraints of my daily job.

During these trips I would always carry a book with me, and would also have some ebooks available on my mobile phone. The works I brought with me were some that had connotations of freedom and self-exploration for me, such as Rousseau's Confessions, Whitman's Leaves of Grass, Emerson's essays and Thoreau's Walden as well as Pierre Hadot's The Veil of Isis.

During these travels and readings, a theme has begun to emerge. The theme is the connection between the self, travelling in text and/or in the physical sense, particularly into 'Nature', whilst seeking some sort of freedom, escape or personal development, and it is this theme which I aim to explore and develop in this blog.