French philosopher Xavier de Maistre spent forty-two days in confinement in 1794 after being arrested for getting into a duel in Turin.
Somewhat parodying the emerging and grandiose narratives of travel writing, De Maistre challenged himself to write about the journey that his curiosity and imagination took him on in his room, while under house arrest!
Autour De Ma Chambre is the short often hilarious text that resulted, a book he felt too silly to try to publish, but his brother did posthumously.
To me, Autour De Ma Chambre makes the serious call-to-arms that it is an important faculty to be able to be deeply curious in whatever situation we’re in.
Per De Maistre’s opening, this applies to rich and poor, adventurous and cowardly, idle or energetic!…
“I might fairly begin the eulogium of my journey by saying it has cost me nothing. This point merits attention. It will gain for it the praise and welcome of people of moderate means. And not of these only: there is another class with whom its success will, on this account, be even more certain. “And who are they?” you ask. Why, the rich, to be sure. And then, again, what a comfort the new mode of travel will be to the sick; they need not fear bleak winds or change of weather. And what a thing, too, it will be for cowards; they will be safe from pitfalls or quagmires. Thousands who hitherto did not dare, others who were not able, and others to whom it never occurred to think of such a thing as going on a journey, will make up their minds to follow my example…No obstacle shall hinder our way; and giving ourselves up gaily to Imagination, we will follow her whithersoever it may be her good pleasure to lead us.”
Yes, true travel more easily stimulates heightened curiosity in the change of context it brings and the novelty of the moments we fall into from arrival at the airport. But we must be able to switch on this faculty in any day or context of our lives to live richly.
And De Maistre counsels serendipity too, in the art of journeying, in the early chapter describing his room, titled Latitude and Topography. He writes:
“My room is situated in latitude 48° east, according to the measurement of Father Beccaria. It lies east and west, and, if you keep very close to the wall, forms a parallelogram of thirty-six steps round. My journey will, however, be longer than this; for I shall traverse my room up and down and across, without rule or plan. I shall even zig-zag about, following, if needs be, every possible geometrical line. I am no admirer of people who are such masters of their every step and every idea that they can say: “To-morrow I shall make three calls, write four letters, and finish this or that work.” So open is my soul to all sorts of ideas, tastes, and feel{12}ings; so greedily does it absorb whatever comes first, that … but why should it deny itself the delights that are scattered along life’s hard path? So few and far between are they, that it would indeed be senseless not to stop, and even turn aside, to gather such as are placed within our reach. Of these joys, none, to my thinking, is more attractive than following the course of one’s fancies as a hunter follows his game, without pretending to keep to any set route. Hence, when I travel in my room, I seldom keep to a straight line. From my table I go towards a picture which is placed in a corner; thence I set out in an oblique direction for the door; and then, although on starting I had intended to return to my table, yet, if I chance to fall in with my arm-chair on the way, I at once, and most unceremoniously, take up my quarters therein.”
It’s a wonderful read, amusing and lightly philosophical. And you can get the gist from the chapter titles given: “The Bed”, “The Portrait”, “A Halt”, “A Tear”, “Albert and Charlotte” (on a memory…), “The Withered Rose” and the philosophical sections on “Misfortune”, “Misanthropy”, “Charity”.
So, back to Rumspringa!
It was quite natural that Autour De Ma Chambre naturally came back to mind in the first days of this early mid-life journey.
A dental surgery meant a week avoiding speaking (‘try to keep talking to less than twenty-four words in twenty-four hours…’). And I used that to set a rough ‘theme’ for the first month of Rumspringa: clearing the decks of life admin (US and UK tax returns, US health insurance), running a full spring cleaning at home (streamlining boxes of books in my garage into piles of ‘re-read, keep or donate’). And, putting a pause on open loops of professional connections with gentle explanations of “not now” whenever in a conversation when the words “opportunity”, “deal”, “investment”, “career” and “what next, Kevin?” are foisted on me. The first week was almost entirely taken up with coffees and discussions that led me to realize I needed to put a pause on all the ideas and “next steps” these will create. I found myself coining in my head an apt, personal new American acronym, richly opposite to the anxious Zeitgeist sales and venture capital cultural expression to get investors to sign over their money with “fear of missing out” (FOMO) > “HTMO”
While sauntering in curiosity, I have to be “Happy to Miss Out”…
