vinceconaway | Travel, Part II (Reply)

"Without my music to give shape to the day, I didn't meet as many people as I otherwise might have. I didn't see places in the light I otherwise could have. And I felt at total loose ends."

Poetic, if I do say so myself, but unspecific. When I am busking, music gives me a schedule: there are good days to busk and good times to do it. I only have so much attention span, so I focus on those days and times I can be most productive. This shapes everything else as I travel, and without that schedule I feel like a bored child at the beginning of summer vacation.

When I am a performer, it gives me a role that "tourist" does not. This is both an internal change and an external one, and I typically refer to cities where I have performed as "mine". Walking through New Orleans' Jackson Square at 10:30 am, instrument in hand, gets a very specific reaction from other people who are headed to work at restaurants, art galleries, and tarot tables: "you're one of us". And, having done it, it's always a part of me.

Am I a local? Of course not: a core part of my identity is that I'm local to nowhere and equally out of place everywhere. But I'm part of the local fabric, even years later, in a way I otherwise couldn't be.

Most importantly, my job is to make people happy and there is nothing on earth like having that as a profession; I'm always thrilled to see a barista, waiter, or receptionist who obviously agrees. Sure, the dollars, euros, kuna, and pesos are vital but they all start with a human connection. And when I travel without it I notice the lack.