The Accidental Tourist

“When you go on a business trip, you just take what you need.

Checking in your luggage is asking for trouble;
Always bringing along travel size detergent, in case your laundry falls into unfamiliar hands;
Wearing a grey color suits which is suitable for all occasions, even a funeral;
A book, protection from stranger, but not too many, for one always overestimate his free time
…….

Most of all, never take things so dear in your life, in case you lose them, it will be devastating.”

That was what Macon’s job, to write travel guide books for business people. The job required him to travel constantly, though he hated it.

One day, when he returned from one of these trips, he was surprised to be told by his wife, Sara that she was leaving him. After their 12 years old son being shot dead two years ago, she felt the only link between Macon and herself was disappear. “I feel that in order to have a life again, I need to leave you, please let me go.”

It was a start of an accidental travel, for Macon himself.

He had to travel again, and his dog, Edward, was his son’s pet, he could not get rid of him. In the course of searching for shelter for his dog, he met Muriel, a dog trainer. She was a divorced single mother with a seven year old son Alexandra. Their relationship was a slow but natural development, Macon finally found himself stepping out the shadow of his son’s death, for the first time in his life maybe, and he opened up himself …to Muriel and her son.

“In the traveling, you may find something unexpected; pick it up if you want, but just bear in mind to take some inconvenient consequence, if you will…” Macon was writing to his readers and himself too.

Several months later, his wife wanted to come back to him; they did try for the second time. But it did not work. Accidental tourist in his own life, Macon found something new in himself , in his wife and the life with Muriel. It was really accidental.

“It impossible to prepare everything in traveling, sometimes, you just have to accept whatever comes your way.”

For sociological point of view, I found this movie even more profound than merely determines what subjective and objective meanings are. It was certainly a challenge to functionalism concepts in society, such as family, marriage, and love. It was a call for us to review those social structural institutions based on shared value or personal interests. Though it only focused on the micro level, the lives of a few families, but it revealed a macro level social dilemma --- the unexpected traveling in any humans’ life.

There seem no fixed rules of game. You just have to accept whatever comes along, but be aware of responsibility. If you don’t mind to be an accidental tourist, you may find it is not bad idea after all to go on a journey. Of course, this movie also showed us we don’t have to follow “the travel guide books” For most of times, even the authors themselves do not know.