Faith, Blood, and Ink: Evaluating My Original Travel Goals

The Great Gallivanting was supposed to be one year of living dangerously across the world with my friend Jo before returning to real life and, hopefully, some government work. In that year, though, I wanted to accomplish some things, though I didn't share that with Jo at the time. Even though she and I were militantly opposed to any sort of plan, I resolved that I wanted to do three things in our travels: see a bullfight in Spain, get better acquainted with religion, and write. I wasn't sure what any of those goals looked like in practicality, but those were the three things on my mind when we departed Texas for France. It has now been over two years, and I have never seriously evaluated those goals, at least not on paper. It's time to change that.

Bullfight

My easiest travel goal to accomplish on The Great Gallivanting was to see a bullfight. The year before Jo and I left on our year around the world, I attended the San Fermin festival in Pamplona, Spain. I ran with the bulls, paraded around with the Gigantes Cabezudos, and drank the night away with new Australian, Dutch, and British friends. I did not, however, attend the bullfight the night I ran with the bulls. At the time, I didn't want to support what was widely portrayed as animal torture, at least in the United States. A couple of months later, I regretted that decision, because I had the opportunity to have an informed opinion on the practice and declined to do so. So, Jo and I bought tickets online to guarantee us seats in the shaded upper deck. We were sure we would hate it, but we both agreed: better for us to watch and be informed than to not and be ignorant. And ignorant we would have been.

We (I can confidently speak for both of us) fell in love with the performance. The bullfight was nothing like we expected. We didn't witness animal torture, although it was difficult to understand everything at our first performance. After some more research after the bullfight in Pamplona, we attended a second a week later in Madrid. Knowing and understanding more this second time, all of our pre-conceived notions evaporated. What we saw was respect, reverence, even, for the bull, a quick death not afforded to the meat we eat, and the dangers matadors face. In our first two bullfights, we saw three injuries. While we had no intention of attending another performance or returning to Spain, a month later, we did to follow Borja Jimenez, and up and coming matador, around the country for three weeks, seeing ten bullfights in the process.

Needless to say, I had accomplished this travel goal. Not only had I checked it off the list, I found a new passion. I have never understood the American obsession with sports teams, but now that I was an aficionado, I could identify a bit more (although I still don't understand much of it). My new passion has not been without consequence, however, as a great many Western women shy away from men who like the bullfights, and my friends refuse to understand it. Regardless, watching this most controversial of Spanish cultural practices has caused me to serious contemplate matters of life, death, morality, religion, and even food sustainability in a modern world where such topics are rarely so deeply contemplated by the average person. I consider myself a better man for it.

Religion

A more difficult, long-term goal was to get more acquainted with religion, and not just my own. I didn't necessarily want to deepen my faith, but I wanted to understand the concept of religion, religious history, and its cultural impacts at a level that I had yet to experience. I came from the Bible Belt in the United States, and I attended church every Sunday growing up, but I had since fallen out with the church. Not Christianity, but the doctrine and politics of churches in general and mine back home, specifically. I also had no understanding of Islam except for the extremist sentiments I dealt with while working in the military and my security firm. Surely, I knew, there was more to religion that my experiences so far.

I would assess this goal as a resounding triumph in some areas and a mild success in others. While I wanted to explore Islam more deeply, Jo and I quickly discovered that being raised Christian slammed the doors shut on many opportunities to visit mosques. In many countries, it is considered taboo (if not haram) for non-Muslims to enter a prayer hall. Fortunately, that was not the case in Turkey or Iraqi Kurdistan, and I was able to obtain a palatable knowledge of Islam before moving on to another part of the world. Some men explained certain practices (like ablution) to me, while others handed out Islam 101 booklets, which I read in earnest. While I had (and still have) no intention of converting, I wanted to delve more deeply into the world's fastest-growing religion. Unfortunately, I was unable to do so to my liking on my first trip around the world.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, I became incredibly familiar with the Christian faith, mostly through the eyes of the Catholic Church. I am not and never will be Catholic, but the Catholic Church has some of the best-kept historical records, memory, and traditions of any religion in the world. Indeed, many of our extra-biblical knowledge about the lives of the Apostles comes from the Catholic Church's effort to maintain its history alongside historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists. As I travelled Europe, I visited cathedrals, basilicas, and churches, both Protestant and Catholic, to learn more about the Christian faith. I learned about the symbols traditionally associated with various figures, the doctrinal fights within the Catholic Church, the roles of patron saints and patronesses, and the meaning in different artistic interpretations of the Bible. My knowledge was put to the test in the Dark Church in Cappadocia, Turkey, where vibrant paintings from centuries before told the story of Jesus's life. I was happy that I could interpret the scenes without the assistance of the internet, and considered this travel goal a success.

Writing

Before The Great Gallivanting, I was never a writer. Sure, I wrote security assessments for my job, memos and papers in graduate schools, and policy and inspection reports in the military, but I had never undertaken a serious writing endeavour like a blog, magazine article, or book. Any time I attempted to start a book or had a new idea, it either didn't pan out or was summarily crushed by some initial reviewer. In fact, nine years before The Great Gallivanting, an ex-girlfriend so excoriatingly critiqued a story I was working on that it turned me off of writing forever. Years later, she tried a half-hearted apology to get me going again, but the damage was done.

Even so, I attempted to keep up a blog of our travels. I wanted to write about where Jo and I had been, reflect on topical issues, and write about the travel gear, hacks, and tips we gained along the way. Try as I might, we moved far too fast and my attention was far too divided to seriously keep up with blog, and it ultimately fell to the wayside. Part of me felt like I had failed, and that part of me was partially correct.

Undeterred, after The Great Gallivanting and the Aficionado Tour, I flew to Mexico to write my first book. I spent every morning for several months writing, editing, proofreading, and preparing the book for launch. I enjoyed the process, and learned much about what it takes to write a worthwhile book. After the launch, my book reached the top 10 on Amazon's travel list, and it reached the number one on the travel new release list. Finally, I could say I was successful in this goal, and I was (and am) eager to apply what I learned to my second, upcoming book about Spain.

While in Mexico, I also started pitching to travel magazines, newspapers, and websites to try to spur on a new travel writing career (I desperately wanted to get out of the national security space). After several rejections, my first piece was finally accepted. It wasn't that my pieces were bad, they just weren't what outlets were looking for. So, I started Jack's Journal, my website's writing section where I write about my travels, reflections, observations, and more. While I would ultimately like for this website to generate revenue, it's purpose right now is to allow me time to practice writing while bringing folks back home on the adventure with me. In this way, I would also qualify this new writing endeavour as a moderate success.

Looking Ahead

While I can say I "checked off" these goals from The Great Gallivanting, they will never truly be fulfilled. Faith is a lifelong commitment, writing is a career aspiration, and being an aficionado is a burning passion that never truly dies (just ask Hemingway). As I continue my travels with the Wayfarer Expedition, I want to build upon my current foundation to expand my horizons. In Spain, Turkey, Ireland, and Israel (hopefully), I hope to delve deeper into religious history and practices while writing my third book. Wherever I am, the bullfights are never far away, as many are broadcast online. And I will continue to work towards getting more of my work published. What originally started as "things I want to do" on a one-year trip has now turned into personal journeys which I hope to continue far into the future.