Susan, Ian and Matt II: Beans means beans -travel means experience.

I promised a Mobility Stories podcast "bite" with some more stories from Matt’s travels as told by Susan and Ian. This is a very short  story(6 mins).

It stars Matt, Susan and Ian, the ticket office man, the train guard who knew what discounts were available in that region and for that operator, and the train guard who understood Matt’s needs for space.  It’s also about a trip to Filey.

It isn’t about buying a tin of beans on-line.  It’s about buying travel. 

It isn’t about eating beans.  It is about consuming (experiencing) travel. 

There is no context to a tin of beans.  But you need context in choosing how to travel if you’re not familiar with the travel you’re buying or have no real, or confident (relevant, recent) experience in that travel.

Susan and Ian are very computer savvy and are very happy doing their on-line shop, which may include beans (I never asked).  But as Susan said when talking about buying tickets on-line for an unfamiliar trip “visualising it is really quite different to being on-line and clicking”.

The images, pictures, stories and memories of how we felt, or think we may feel, govern our behaviour. They are how we make sense of the world.   If we haven’t done a journey before, or are not confident or regular travellers, we all need help to make decisions. 

Homo economicus never existed*. And he never went on a train trip to Filey with Susan, Ian and Matt. I am sure he bought the best value beans though.

Music Credits:

Life of a Wandering Wizard by Serge Quadrado

*Note even in Jon's world