Postcards from the Soul

More travelers than ever before are seeking illumination rather than sightseeing.

By Laurel Kallenbach

A trip to Paris to see the great nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings. Though millions of tourists crowd into the Louvre each year, for one man and his terminally ill father, this trip was much more than a sightseeing jaunt. For poet and screenwriter Richard Beban, it represented a last chance for him to reunite with his long-estranged alcoholic father; Paris was a modern-day, soul-searching pilgrimage.

In 1985, when his father, diagnosed with lung cancer, was given six months to live, Beban impulsively charged two plane tickets he couldn't afford to his credit card and invited the man whom he had barely spoken to in eight years. "When I was a kid, he was a Sunday painter who dearly loved art," Beban recalls. "But with five children to support, he worked more and gradually painted less, though he'd always be first in line at the museum if an Impressionist exhibition came to town. Before he died, I wanted him to visit a city where the streets are named after artists and poets, and people have reverence for art."

The two spent 12 days discovering Paris and each other. "My father bought a notebook and started drawing—something he had not done for years and years," Beban recounts. "That's how I knew that his anima —his soul—had been touched and was beginning to revivify." One day, Beban took his father to L'Orangerie, the gallery where many of Monet's paintings hang. "When you walk into that room, you're surrounded by water lilies," he says. "I left my father there while I ran an errand nearby. When I came back, I stood in the doorway watching as tears ran down his cheeks. I felt a deep closeness to him because I recognized this was where his soul was."

The father/son pilgrimage was far from easy, yet it was ultimately healing for both. "I was worried, confused, and angry with my father for his unlived life," Beban admits. "I was also wary about what he would think of me. Yet, there were moments of great joy and heart-filling love." Fifteen years later, he still reflects on those days with his father, who died nine months after the trip. Images of his father infuse his poetry, and the Paris experience—a journey that changed and nourished his life—is the subject of a screenplay that Beban calls "Meeting Monet."

Spiritual Travel for the Modern Pilgrim

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step."—Lao-tzu

Even as tourism has become a multi-billion-dollar industry, many people are discovering that travel is actually a metaphor for the spiritual journey. Preparation, departure, the arduous road, and arrival are also the metaphysical steps we take to reach a spiritual destination—but instead of embarking for undiscovered countries, the spiritual journey goes within. If you crave more than a "vacation"—literally vacating or "getting away from it all"—or if you believe travel can deepen your spiritual essence, help you make life decisions, or unburden a beleaguered soul, then you've joined the ranks of spiritual pilgrims. Although the word "pilgrimage" conjures images of fervent religious devotees toiling for months to reach a sacred destination, modern pilgrimage includes visiting secular sites, tracking down family roots, or paying homage to places, things, or ideas that have enriched your life. Travelers of every ilk—whether exploring Easter Island, studying Filippo Lippi frescoes, or bowing before Graceland—find greater meaning and answers to their questions.

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