The President of Costa Rica mentioned during a recent conference that those of us in the travel industry are the peacekeepers of the world. When I saw a friend post that to Facebook it made a big light bulb go off above my head. That makes so much sense! No, I don't have diplomatic responsibilities for the State Department or put myself in harm's way on the battle field, but we do send millions of people each year to foreign lands on journeys of discovery.
Whether it is for relaxation, adventure, or a celebration travel can lead people to question their assumptions about other cultures, recognize the common thread of humanity in people around the world and appreciate home a bit more. Once you have taken the chance to fully immerse yourself in conversation with someone new you're bound to take away some new knowledge. Armed with that knowledge, I'd like to believe people are more likely to think before disparaging another group or question how a family might be dealing with the ravages of a natural disaster that they may have glossed over before meeting someone from there.
If you've read my blog or known me any amount of time you'll know one of my passions is talking to people just about everywhere I go on a trip. I still remember the dining room waiter from India on my first cruise and the taxi driver who engaged in deep discussions about economic policy and racism driving from hotel to hotel in Riviera Maya. Whether on vacation or business, each one of these strangers made an impression.
I'd been doing lots of deep thinking about how to use my talents in a way that impact the world in a more meaningful way. What a revelation, I already do! Every time one of you pulls out that passport, heads out on a cool excursion or lingers at the lido buffet talking to the cook, I am spreading a little peace.
My challenge going forward is to remind you that your trips are about way more than budgets and room categories; it's about expanding your mind in the way that best suits you and spreads that spark around the world.
I went through some of my recent pics to see where I looked the most alive. It looks like it really is when I'm traveling and spending time with family. Whether we were in another country or just down the Georgia coast, we were learning something about the world around us and the impact of the unique people around us. So here are a few of my favorite memories. I'd love to hear about yours!
From top left:
1. In Veracruz with the shaman who evidently thinks I'm squeezably soft. Talk of Brujas (witch) would definitely not happen in my everyday life, but it was fascinating to see the mingling of strong Catholic faith with Pagan beliefs. The discussion with colleagues that followed about the experience sparked a discussion about the benefits of meditation that made me seek out some classes back in Atlanta. (Actually, it's the same person whose post inspired this topic!)
2 & 5. At Sea World with my son. Even in the land of theme parks (Orlando), we still found some consciousness expanding activities. My son loves anything to do with animals, but has definitely thought critically about the balance of educational value and fun versus questionable practices of zoos. (Have you seen Blackfish on Netflix? If you're curious about the back lash against Sea World it's a good conversation starter.)
3. Cruising - With crew from dozens of countries and a good passenger mix you're bound to interact with folks with a different background. I've become Facebook friends with a few people I've found I have more in common with than anyone at home. The kids also meet new friends in the kid's club away from the social pressures of school.
4. In Nassau with my host in the People to People program. Instead of another beach trip, we opted to see the island through the eyes of a local we were matched with through the Bahamas tourism office free program. My son seemed quite disappointed to realize kids who live on an island aren't really on vacation every day. Our host's friends even welcomed us into their home where we discussed their affection for Duck Dynasty. Can you imagine how other people are judging us by these reality shows? LOL
6. On a shrimp boat in south Georgia. One of the crew members could tell you anything about the health of the coastal region and the price trends of local shrimp with the acumen of a stock trader though he had a basic education by most standards.
I guess this pose was just pure excitement waiting to explode! |
Us on the Aqua Duck coaster while docked at Castaway Cay |
Watching One Ocean at Sea World Orlando |
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” ~ St. Augustine “The first condition of understanding a foreign country is to smell it.” ~ Rudyard Kipling “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” ~ Henry Miller “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness. ~ Ray Bradbury |
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“All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” ~ Paul Fussell “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” ~ Mark Twain “A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.” ~ John Steinbeck “No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” ~ Lin Yutang
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Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. ~Benjamin Disraeli “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” ~ Henry Miller “To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” ~ Freya Stark “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” ~ Miriam Beard
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” ~ Martin Buber |
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“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” ~ Jawaharial Nehru “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” ~ Carlo Goldoni “Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” ~ Paul Theroux “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson “Two roads diverged in a wood and I ~ I took the one less traveled by.” ~ Robert Frost “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu
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“There is no moment of delight in any pilgrimage like the beginning of it.” ~ Charles Dudley Warner
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ~ Lao Tzu “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” ~ James Michener “The journey not the arrival matters.” ~ T. S. Eliot “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” ~ Islamic proverb |
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“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.” ~ Tim Cahill “A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” ~ Lao Tzu
“Not all those who wander are lost.” ~ J. R. R. Tolkien “Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.” ~ Benjamin Disraeli “Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.” ~ Maya Angelou |
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Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe” ~ Anatole France “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.” ~ Seneca
“Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” ~ Jack Kerouac “I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” ~ Lillian Smith “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” ~ Mark Twain “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.” ~ Aldous Huxley |
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“Travel does what good novelists also do to the life of everyday, placing it like a picture in a frame or a gem in its setting, so that the intrinsic qualities are made more clear. Travel does this with the very stuff that everyday life is made of, giving to it the sharp contour and meaning of art.” ~ Freya Stark
“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” ~ Samuel Johnson “The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” ~ G. K. Chesterton I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep ~ Robert Frost |
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Travel On Purpose