If, on the other hand, there is nothing in particular one has to accomplish on one's trip, one can just wait for something to happen. One will sometimes see things in this way that others miss, look past the important sights, catch an accidental impression that has meaning only for oneself. Such a careless vagabond does not usually have much to communicate to others, and if he does try to communicate something, he easily runs the risk of undermining the positive opinion good people might have concerning his moral character and manners
Isn't this what is at work every time I go walking, or engage in conversation, or perform music, or even every time I read? There's a certain amount of gambling to each of these things, but a part of every gamble is being aware of the very real possibility that it will end in catastrophic loss or humiliation or, maybe worse, boredom.
My priorities in reading have very little to do with comprehensive knowledge of a work, or the ability to detail main arguments and trajectories and define terms. And I rarely feel embarrassment about failing to remember, or the way that my memory of a text works (I can never remember cold, I almost always need triggers). Perhaps because, in my opinion, forgetting is the only way to make sense of something or, perhaps, because my interest in smaller matters has usually looped me back around to the heart of the matter anyway.
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