國家地理:為什么旅行是一項基本的人類活動(1)

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I've been putting my passport to good use lately. I use it as a coaster and to level wobbly table legs. It makes an excellent cat toy.

最近我善加利用了我的護照。我把它用來當杯墊，墊在高低不一的桌腳下。給貓咪玩也很棒。

Welcome to the pandemic of disappointments. Canceled trips, or ones never planned lest they be canceled. Family reunions, study-abroad years, lazy beach vacations. Poof. Gone. Obliterated by a tiny virus.

歡迎來到“失望大流行”。取消的旅行，或唯恐被取消而直接打消的旅行念頭。家族聚會、海外留學、慵懶的海灘假期。噗，沒了。因為一個小小的病毒而蕩然無存。

Only a third of Americans say they have traveled overnight for leisure since March, and only slightly more, 38 percent, say they are likely to do so by the end of the year, according to one report. Only a quarter of us plan on leaving home for Thanksgiving, typically the busiest travel time. The numbers paint a grim picture of our stilled lives.

一份報告顯示，自3月份以來，只有三分之一的美國人表示他們有過為休閑而通宵旅行的經(jīng)歷，只有38%的人表示他們可能會在年底前這么做。只有四分之一的美國人計劃在感恩節(jié)離開家，這通常是最繁忙的旅行時間。這些數(shù)字描繪了我們死氣沉沉的生活。

It is not natural for us to be this sedentary. Travel is in our genes. For most of the time our species has existed, "we've lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers moving about in small bands of 150 or fewer people," writes Christopher Ryan in Civilized to Death. This nomadic life was no accident. It was useful. "Moving to a neighboring band is always an option to avoid brewing conflict or just for a change in social scenery," says Ryan. Robert Louis Stevenson put it more succinctly: "The great affair is to move."

像這樣長久待在同一個地方對我們來說并不自然。旅行寫在我們的基因里。在人類存在的大多數(shù)時間，“我們一直是居無定所的狩獵采集者，以150人以下的小群體移動?！笨死锼苟喔！とR恩在其著作《文明至死》中寫道。這樣居無定所的生活并非偶然形成，而是有其功用。萊恩指出：“遷移到鄰近的族群中，一直是個化解自己團體內(nèi)部醞釀的沖突以及轉(zhuǎn)換社交場景的手段。”寫了《金銀島》的19世紀作家羅伯特·劉易斯·史蒂文森說得更精簡：“移動是人類的大事。”

What if we can't move, though? What if we're unable to hunt or gather? What's a traveler to do? There are many ways to answer that question. "Despair," though, is not one of them.

但如果我們不能移動會怎么樣？如果我們無法狩獵或采集會怎么樣？一名旅人又該如何是好？問題的答案雖有千百種，但“絕望”不會是其中之一。