“Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than a moving plane, ship, or train. There is almost a peculiar correlation between what is in front of our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at times requiring large views, new thoughts, new places. Introspective reflections which are liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to do. The task can be as paralyzing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand. Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks, are charged with listening to music or following a line of trees.”
Take a Journey with Navasa
This surprisingly nuanced excerpt is from a Korean state exam which exemplifies what traveling can mean beyond transporting oneself from point A to point B. It probably quite accurately summarizes the role traveling plays in my life and why I have prioritized it as I navigate through my youth.
Whenever I make trips back to my hometown and meet with my oldest friend, we usually end up deep in reflective conversations about parental rights in the Global North or debates about the transferability of the welfare state and the like. My thoughts have come from my travels; my way of traveling is physically going from one place to another, living and studying and traveling abroad. My friend’s thoughts also come from her travels; her way of traveling, however, doesn’t require much movement at all. She works at a university where she regularly acquaints herself with international colleagues and students enough so that we can have a back-and-forth about similar issues no matter where they have originated. She manages to “travel without moving.”
Traveling without moving is exactly what NAVASA allows you to do. NAVASA is an electronic duo comprised of Tammy Sue Everett and Gregory T. Biribauer. They are based out of the Delmarva Peninsula on the Eastern Shore although Everett is from Pennsylvania, Biribauer is from Canada, and they met in Colorado. NAVASA was coined after Navassa Island which is located in the Caribbean Sea near Haiti. They state, “We try to make dreamy, spacey textures that can let a listener travel without moving.”
Travel back to 1963 with their release below:
And continue the immobile journey by keeping up with NAVASA on their YouTube and Facebook pages.
