Column Chronicles: Wanderlust - Frank Cotolo on 148.ca

Wanderlust

Frank Cotolo
August 6, 2015

Some people cannot get enough of anything. They spend most of their waking time looking for new things to do, while their sleeping time renders them listless.

The condition is known as Wanderlust and it is defined as "having an almost uncontrolable yearning for new experiences."

Wanderlust comes from the German word "wanderlust," which can be a verb or an adjective in its native language - it's according to how it is used in a sentence. But it is a noun the way it is used as a condition defined as “having an almost uncontrolable yearning for new experiences."

Doctors have just begun to look into the condition, which some think has to do with the front of the brain, while other doctors think it has to do with the back of the brain. So far, no doctors are thinking the condition has to do with either side of the brain.

"All of us have a dose of Wanderlust," said Dr. Waylon Jennings, who was no relation to the late country singer. "When we become bored, things are stressful and we usually think of doing something we have never done before."

Dr. Jennings pointed out that it can be dangerous just to have a dose of Wanderlust, making an example of a man from Texas whose Wanderlust prompted him to jump from the 12th story of a building to see what it was like to fall a long way. Some thought the action was suicidal in origin but the man's final words indicated otherwise. He said, "Wow, that was different."

Wanderlust began, historians say, in Austria, just before the Germanic wars, as the borders of the area altered from bloody battles and bad weather. This era was the setting of a famous German movie titled "Wanderlust Or Not, Here I Come" (the English translation).

In the new millennium it is said that thousands of people are stricken with Wanderlust in cities across the world. Terrorists, it has been theorized, are often victims of Wanderlust.

"After doing good things all of their lives and getting complacent," said Dr. Eugene Genepool, "people get the urge to feel what it is like to do terrible things. Many of these people take Wanderlust to the umpteenth degree and join terrorist groups that kill for the sake of the killing experience."

Other doctors, all unnamed, disagree with Dr. Genepool's assessment of "umpteenth." Not only that, but mathematicians are totally against using the generic term for "a lot," and have been trying to get the word "umpteenth" banned from use in any mathematical work.

So be careful if you suddenly want to have a new experience.

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.