I think you're assuming a little too much here. I didn't read his journey, I admit; but what I saw him as doing was making a single trip to try and clear and focus his head to something that's more than the blank routine. He said nothing of what he's doing now, just of what he did once. There, I think, is the big difference. A lot of young college students in Europe, from what I understand, go backpacking over much of the continent for a year, to do something similar.

And your 'everything is vanity' stance? While to some extent, it is true, everything is vanity, only the superficial changes, there will still be wars, there will still be famine, there will still be droughts, there will still be power struggles, there will still be times that seem good, and so on, at least in the long view of things, you can still effort to be useful and to make a positive difference, and to grow as a person, and maybe, just maybe, to find that way in which you can make that part of your world, at least for the time you are alive, a little bit better; and if you're lucky, a bigger part of your little world a lot better.

In all, I don't think he was running. Or rather, I don't think he was only running. I think he was escaping to clear his mind and work to decide what was really important so he could then do that when his journey was over.