The Inner Light

"Hey Sunshine, pass the butter chicken"

   The farther one travels, the less one knows, or so the  song goes.
Back in the day when the pre-fab four, …er, sorry, wrong band, what I meant to say was, back in the day, when The Beatles recorded this song, singer songwriter John Lennon perhaps wanted to impart an ancient wisdom to those humble enough to accept it. What does it mean? Does it mean that if we fly off every year to 'all expense paid' Cuban resorts or 'Spring Break' holidays in Cancun Mexico, we will all become walking morons?
Even though these 'value vacations' can leave irreparable scars on the human soul, many who go on these junkets probably never knew much to begin with…I apologize, I'm much too harsh, it must be heartburn from all the nachos and salsa I had for breakfast. I promise to stop being a 'jerkface', as my sister sometimes (often) calls me.
Back to The Rutles…I mean The Beatles, and John Lennon in particular, what does he mean by this musical statement?
A child knows very little, in comparison to a fully grown adult, but a child knows everything it needs to know about its small world. As we mature, we experience more life and acquire more and more knowledge. The process of accumulating knowledge should lead any conscious person to the same conclusion: that the world, and the cosmos, is far more vast and complex than any of us can imagine.
So the very act of living, and thus travelling, whether it be to far off lands, or to the outer realms of experience and consciousness, can only lead us to ask more questions than our universe, is at present, prepared to answer.
Note: The Inner Light, was the title of a Hugo award winning episode of Star Trek:The Next Generation, where Captain Picard's soul is sent back through time in order to live out an entirely new life, in the end he is returned to his future self, a changed man, allowing the spirit of those he once loved to live again.
-Dirty C.T. December 8th 2010