peak human
August 2, 2019 4:52 AM Subscribe
What travel experiences can I have that will leave me in awe of an experience of community or human achievement? Maybe it's a specific place? An event? Basically I'm asking a question like this or this, except I want to be connected with humankind instead of nature.
About 25 years ago I volunteered at a week-long Habitat Blitz Build for members of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in Eagle Butte, SD. By the end of it 30+ families had beautiful new homes and a fantastic playground for their kids. The tribe put on a powwow at the end of the week. If you're in the US and interested in that kind of thing check out the Habitat website. You don't need to have construction experience. If you're a woman it can be a great way to learn some basic construction skills.
posted by mareli at 5:14 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by mareli at 5:14 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
You might have done these already, but political/social justice marches and mass participation races will reliably move me to tears at the spectacle of collective human endeavour. In fact, watching and supporting moves me almost more than taking part. All those faces coming towards me, full of determination or hope and coming together at the same time and place to move forward as one, with shared purpose - oh! I’m almost off again!
posted by penguin pie at 6:01 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by penguin pie at 6:01 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
Check out the festivals of Castellers in Catalonia. I haven't been but they look pretty amazing to me.
posted by spindrifter at 6:18 AM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by spindrifter at 6:18 AM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Mr. Brightside at Glastonbury. (Context)
Gopchang Jeongol in Seoul is a special, special place. It does really feel like a community: the crowd is a mix of middle-aged couples to young hipsters, and everyone knows the words to the oldies.
My favorite experience of community was dancing at Taboo (a lesbian club) in drag after marriage equality was legalized in Taipei. Some Pride parades can capture this feeling, but it really depends on the crowd and the level of corporate fuckery.
posted by storytam at 6:29 AM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Gopchang Jeongol in Seoul is a special, special place. It does really feel like a community: the crowd is a mix of middle-aged couples to young hipsters, and everyone knows the words to the oldies.
My favorite experience of community was dancing at Taboo (a lesbian club) in drag after marriage equality was legalized in Taipei. Some Pride parades can capture this feeling, but it really depends on the crowd and the level of corporate fuckery.
posted by storytam at 6:29 AM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Fête de la Musique in France, and widely copied worldwide on the June 21 solstice, is a community-wide sing along and play along when amateur and professional musicians sing and play their instruments outdoors. Here's Wikipedia on it:
"In October 1981, Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance at the Ministry of Culture at Jack Lang's request. He applied his reflections to the musical practice and its evolution: "the music everywhere and the concert nowhere". When he discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one young person out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. It first took place in 1982 in Paris as the Fête de la Musique."
It can be bacchanalian, but if you walk through neighborhoods, parks, and courtywards in Paris, you will hear children and adults singing and playing their instruments with pride. Féte de la Musique is also celebrated in many towns and villages in France--simple idea that really took off.
posted by Elsie at 7:06 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
"In October 1981, Maurice Fleuret became Director of Music and Dance at the Ministry of Culture at Jack Lang's request. He applied his reflections to the musical practice and its evolution: "the music everywhere and the concert nowhere". When he discovered, in a 1982 study on the cultural habits of the French, that five million people, one young person out of two, played a musical instrument, he began to dream of a way to bring people out on the streets. It first took place in 1982 in Paris as the Fête de la Musique."
It can be bacchanalian, but if you walk through neighborhoods, parks, and courtywards in Paris, you will hear children and adults singing and playing their instruments with pride. Féte de la Musique is also celebrated in many towns and villages in France--simple idea that really took off.
posted by Elsie at 7:06 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
I'm not Hindu but am low-key fascinated by the Kumbh Mela a series of pilgrimage festivals in India that take place in a number of locations on a rolling basis. The Hardiwar location, used ever 12 years, has one in 2021. Past festivals have drawn upwards of 120M people (over a month and a half span), and up to 10M people on a single day.
[in keeping with recent discussions on cultural appropriation i want to say here that im not 100% sure that the Kumbh Mela is a valid "touristic" experience - it doesnt appear as though non-Hindus are unwelcome and there is some travel info out there clearly targeting tourists (although im sure some participants would wonder why you were there) so much as the conditions are . . .trying and its not something most folks are interested in dealing with - my fascination started when we were, maybe somewhat jokingly, invited along with a family friend who attends for religious purposes]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:07 AM on August 2, 2019
[in keeping with recent discussions on cultural appropriation i want to say here that im not 100% sure that the Kumbh Mela is a valid "touristic" experience - it doesnt appear as though non-Hindus are unwelcome and there is some travel info out there clearly targeting tourists (although im sure some participants would wonder why you were there) so much as the conditions are . . .trying and its not something most folks are interested in dealing with - my fascination started when we were, maybe somewhat jokingly, invited along with a family friend who attends for religious purposes]
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 7:07 AM on August 2, 2019
Visit the Acropolis in Athens. You'll be walking among the columns where Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Sophocles, Pericles, Euripides, walked. A pretty good percentage of what we call civilization got its start there -- politics, science, drama, philosophy. I found it awe inspiring.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:16 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Winnie the Proust at 7:16 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Not sure if this is what you're looking for, but nothing made me feel better about the ingenuity, grit, mystery, and long-term potential of humanity than visiting Dun Aonghasa, a 3000 year old stone fort on a cliff above the ocean on Inishmore, a small island off the coast of Ireland. Even today it feels extremely remote, like you're perched on the edge of the world, and the thought of people managing to settle and carve out a civilization there in times that seem unimaginably primitive to our minds - it's awe-inspiring, and gives me hope that humanity will persist and thrive no matter how bleak things sometimes seem in this world we live in today.
posted by something something at 7:20 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
posted by something something at 7:20 AM on August 2, 2019 [5 favorites]
This is a big commitment, but that shouldn't be disqualifying when the question is "peak": hiking the Appalachian Trail.
Yes I responded to the correct question. The nature is incidental.
posted by ToddBurson at 7:34 AM on August 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
Yes I responded to the correct question. The nature is incidental.
posted by ToddBurson at 7:34 AM on August 2, 2019 [4 favorites]
The Johnson or Kennedy Space Centers. The scale is humbling to start with, and then realizing that people did this. A significant period of the development of space flight was done with less computing power than you have on your wrist or in your pocket, plus thousands of human brains and hands.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:23 AM on August 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Lyn Never at 8:23 AM on August 2, 2019 [7 favorites]
Maybe this is too obvious an answer, but if you haven't been to one of the major European cathedrals, you will be stunned by the effort and ingenuity that went into creating such a massive and beautiful structure, especially before modern tools and machinery. I imagine you'd feel the same way at the Taj Mahal or the Pyramids or the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque.
posted by praemunire at 8:27 AM on August 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 8:27 AM on August 2, 2019 [8 favorites]
When I want to feel this way I don't go far from home. I just stop and pay attention to the everyday miracles that continue to astound me.
For example every day 4 million drivers hit the road in the SF Bay Area. There are, rounding up, 2 fatalities. Imagine that: all the merging, the letting people over, all the good will and cooperation among 4 million people every single day. It's too easy to get upset over the bad actors and ignore the millions of people bonded in a common task.
There are many things like this. 8 million people live on top of each other in New York City and for all their brusque reputation cooperate extensively to make it happen.
Humans do these mass cooperative projects every day of the year, we just get inured to how fantastic it all is. If you want to see humans at their best, just take a few steps back. They're impressive as hell.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:38 AM on August 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
For example every day 4 million drivers hit the road in the SF Bay Area. There are, rounding up, 2 fatalities. Imagine that: all the merging, the letting people over, all the good will and cooperation among 4 million people every single day. It's too easy to get upset over the bad actors and ignore the millions of people bonded in a common task.
There are many things like this. 8 million people live on top of each other in New York City and for all their brusque reputation cooperate extensively to make it happen.
Humans do these mass cooperative projects every day of the year, we just get inured to how fantastic it all is. If you want to see humans at their best, just take a few steps back. They're impressive as hell.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:38 AM on August 2, 2019 [12 favorites]
I rarely feel connected to humanity when I am in crowds. Quite the opposite. Being in crowds fills me with ... well, a fear for my own survival, because I am under 5 ft tall and am in danger of being trampled to death. But also a visceral aversion to humanity and I cannot fucking wait to get away from everyone forever.
What makes me feel connected to humanity is to visit ancient ruins, historic sites, museums, etc. Or even reading a book that was written a long time ago, or a book about people from a long time ago. I have never felt such a frisson of feeling connected to all of humanity and our commonality as when I stood looking at a human shape preserved in ash at Pompeii, or when I was in Penang looking at the bones of starved prisoners at the Jeath War Museum in Penang. Lest you think I am just irredeemably morbid, I get the same feeling when I read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
posted by MiraK at 10:01 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
What makes me feel connected to humanity is to visit ancient ruins, historic sites, museums, etc. Or even reading a book that was written a long time ago, or a book about people from a long time ago. I have never felt such a frisson of feeling connected to all of humanity and our commonality as when I stood looking at a human shape preserved in ash at Pompeii, or when I was in Penang looking at the bones of starved prisoners at the Jeath War Museum in Penang. Lest you think I am just irredeemably morbid, I get the same feeling when I read Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
posted by MiraK at 10:01 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'll be honest with you, every morning when my foot hits the pavement outside my building in NYC, as long as I'm semi-conscious, I feel just the tiniest thrill of awe. I grew up in a ruined city. Just to see the urban mechanics working every morning--people opening the stores, buying their breakfast from the cart, making deliveries--is still amazing. But my street isn't as pretty as some of the other things suggested here, so I didn't go with that first.
posted by praemunire at 10:02 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by praemunire at 10:02 AM on August 2, 2019 [6 favorites]
...Burning Man?
posted by estlin at 10:17 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by estlin at 10:17 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you’ve some chunky money to throw at it, you could join the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. It’s the only circumnavigation race for non-professional sailors (you can do individual legs, don’t have to do the whole thing). They teach you from scratch how to sail a stripped-down racing yacht, you’re assigned to a specific boat/team, and there’s a huge race start with lots of hullabaloo and a massive flotilla of boats accompanying you out to sea. Then it’s just you and up to 20 crew mates on the open ocean, working non-stop on rotating watches, cooking for each other in a tiny galley, carrying out repairs as you go, coping with storms, calm weather, seasickness and injury, racing to get to the next point, where there’s more hullabaloo as you arrive. Even if you only do one leg, you’re part of your team for the entire year that the race lasts, following along and going to race finish to welcome them home.
Between all the boats and legs, hundreds of people take part, and it’s an awesome achievement amid a tight knit family. I did the first leg as a journalist, and though I never really took to sailing, it was an epic experience of human achievement and teamwork. Mine was one of the shorter legs but we still had seven days when we didn’t see any coastline or a single other boat. Just the 20 of us, our yacht, the sea, sky and horizon for a whole week. Even if the sailing stretches are with small numbers of people, there’s an intensity and an interdependence that you don’t get in many other situations.
posted by penguin pie at 10:41 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Between all the boats and legs, hundreds of people take part, and it’s an awesome achievement amid a tight knit family. I did the first leg as a journalist, and though I never really took to sailing, it was an epic experience of human achievement and teamwork. Mine was one of the shorter legs but we still had seven days when we didn’t see any coastline or a single other boat. Just the 20 of us, our yacht, the sea, sky and horizon for a whole week. Even if the sailing stretches are with small numbers of people, there’s an intensity and an interdependence that you don’t get in many other situations.
posted by penguin pie at 10:41 AM on August 2, 2019 [3 favorites]
Granted, I was a sensitive 17 year old who had barely left Ohio at the time, but visiting the Louvre brought me to tears.
posted by sugarbomb at 11:44 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by sugarbomb at 11:44 AM on August 2, 2019 [1 favorite]
The Johnson or Kennedy Space Centers.
Related to this, go and see an orbital rocket launch, preferably crewed.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 1:37 PM on August 2, 2019
Related to this, go and see an orbital rocket launch, preferably crewed.
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 1:37 PM on August 2, 2019
To build on the cathedral answer, listening to Bach in a cathedral is especially nice.
posted by pinochiette at 2:26 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by pinochiette at 2:26 PM on August 2, 2019 [2 favorites]
Go to a great live theater - or better yet, opera - festival. Think of the thousands of hours of practice, study, expertise, writing, building, inventing, organizing, and collaborating to create something coming to life before your eyes for no purpose other than pleasure and fulfillment. The more you learn about all the moving pieces offstage, the better.
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 6:38 PM on August 3, 2019
posted by fast ein Maedchen at 6:38 PM on August 3, 2019
How long do you have? Live abroad, learn a language and integrate into a new culture. As well as that time itself, the language you learn can connect you with humans in surprising ways for the rest of your life.
posted by squishles at 10:11 AM on August 4, 2019
posted by squishles at 10:11 AM on August 4, 2019
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posted by mskyle at 5:07 AM on August 2, 2019 [7 favorites]