There can be many reasons to travel, but wandering into the world for no particular reason is a sublime madnes... — Michael Leunig

There can be many reasons to travel, but wandering into the world for no particular reason is a sublime madness, which in all its whimsy and pointlessness may depict the story of life - and indeed could be a useful model to keep in mind, seeing as so much of life's ambition comes unstuck or leads to nothing much at all.

Author: Michael Leunig

Insight: There's something we've all felt but rarely admit: that the pressure to have a destination, a purpose, a clear reason for everything can actually drain the life out of living. We're taught to travel with a checklist, to optimize our time, to collect experiences like currency. But what Leunig is pointing at is that the best moments often happen sideways, when you wander down a street because the light looked interesting, or talk to a stranger because they smiled at you, not because it was scheduled. The deeper insight here isn't that aimlessness is just fun—it's that it's honest. Most of what we carefully plan doesn't work out the way we hoped anyway. The promotion falls through. The perfect job turns out to be ordinary. Relationships end. So if we're going to be disappointed by reality regardless, why not lean into the wandering? Why not embrace the detours as the actual story rather than the interruptions to it? This reframes what we usually call "wasting time" as something closer to wisdom. It suggests that if you can travel (and live) without needing everything to add up to something grand, you've actually figured out something true about how the world works. You're no longer bracing yourself for disappointment; you're already at ease with mystery.