Ithaca, again.

Maoshan's other post makes me so emotional and I think of this poem, and it just never ceases to move me.

Copying my comment on Maoshan's blog, on the notion of searching for the perfect place.

"So true, so true, we do so much to search for what we think is better, more beautiful, brighter, all with a little hope embedded inside. Sometimes I cant help thinking that to arrive at that better place is not the point, but the process, the journey, in which you strive so hard, go through so much pain and uplifting moments, sacrifice so much, taking a leap of faith...That maybe itself is the better place, the striving to arrive at one...when you think about it, actually arriving at the perfect place may be such an anti-climatic moment...given the amount of things you have seen on the way, no?

There're these stanzas in my favourite poem - “Ithaca” - Constantine P. Cavafy (1911). To search for Ithaca, was the grandest voyage after all.

Ithaca has given you the beautiful voyage.
Without her you would have never set out on the road.
She has nothing more to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
you must already have understood what Ithaca means."