Associations

I love associations. Whenever I smell cut grass I immediately picture the front yard of the house I grew up in. The scent of a leather jacket reminds me of my high school boyfriend. A whiff of allspice or cloves reminds me of visits to my grandma, where a jar of watermelon pickles (made with allspice and cloves) was inevitably produced, emptied into a glass dish, and transferred to my plate with the aid of a tiny pickle fork. Just the other week, the sunlight mixed with the new warmth in the air and the tiny buds on the trees jolted me back to all those Thursdays before Easter, when my family would pack up the van and start driving down to Florida for vacation.

I had another association experience last week. I had just bought a couple travel guides, and one of them was a Let's Go. I used Let's Go when I backpacked in Europe back in 2003, and relied on it for all my travels in China. It's got a certain paper, and a specific typeface and setup. Leafing through it in a little tea house in the Village, I suddenly remembered how it felt each time I had read a Let's Go in the past. Not that I've ever forgotten how amazing each trip was, but I had lost some of the specifics of how it felt to plan these things. The initial planning of a trip is such a great thing. You know, that moment when you begin to see all the specific possibilities and imagine that you can do every one of them. Yes, I think I'll go and see the Pyrenees. Hm, I do believe I'll stop by Xi'an and see the Terra Cotta Warriors. The memory of thinking those things and the intoxicating sense of freedom that comes with it, to me, can be as satisfying as the memory of the experiences themselves.

All this is to say that we've gone and bought tickets for a three-week trip in August. !. I do love seeing new things.