Travel Tales Podcast
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This book. This little book right here.
No other document has opened my mind and changed my way of thinking more than this one.
No book on religion, science, history, or art has taught me more about humanity than what I’ve learned through every stamp on its pages.
Between its covers are lessons from over 90 countries and seven continents; people I’ve met from countless ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds different from my own; friends and lovers made and lost; some of my greatest joys experienced; and some of my greatest fears tamed (or hopefully, yet to be).
As I bid goodbye to my latest, and most used, passport, I pause to reflect on what this tiny booklet has brought to my life over the years. To a kid from the American Midwest who never left the country until he was 21, my first passport was like Wonka’s Golden Ticket- an entryway to literally, a whole new world.
The moment I stepped off the plane onto a different continent all those years ago, my eyes and mind were blown wide open.
I saw new ways of talking, eating, praying, thinking, working, living…being. I couldn’t see enough. I vowed I would make travel a priority in my life from then on. To my great joy, I have.
To possess a United States passport is an incredible gift and opportunity that sadly, millions don’t, or won’t, use to its full advantage. For decades, a US passport was rated the most valuable in the world in terms of entry and access to other countries, finishing second only this past year (congrats, Singapore!)
I knew how lucky I was to be born into such a fortunate situation. I did nothing to earn that Golden Ticket, but I vowed I wouldn’t waste it.
That’s not to say my wanderlust hasn’t come without cost. Aside from the obvious financial expenditures, there were failures to keep the home fires burning, be they romantic relationships strained, friendships untended, or career opportunities missed. There were times I regretted not being home to take that call or honor that invitation. Many other times I was happy to avoid those same calls and invitations in favor of wherever I was at the moment.
No matter how many trips I’ve made outside of US borders, I can honestly say I’ve never regretted one.
Even when the experience was disappointing, or even negative, I came away a stronger, smarter person for having taken the step in the first place. I knew things I hadn’t known before I left my comfort zone- I learned.
An easy trap for those of us in middle-age or older to fall into is the failure to keep learning. We find easy comfort in the familiar: we listen to the same old music, read the same old books, go to the same old places. It’s a dangerous trap- the world is simply too big for that.
There are always new sounds, sights, flavors, smells, cultures, customs and people to discover if we are willing to take the first step.
Our comfort zones will be there when we return, only now we may appreciate them even more. We may even bring back ways to improve and expand our comfort zones, but make no mistake- they will change.
Watching women in poor countries walk miles daily for fresh water makes it difficult to look at a home faucet the same way. Experiencing a place where reliable electricity is a luxury makes a person that much more thankful to flip on a light switch at will.
Likewise, spending time in countries with better infrastructure, schools, health care systems and lower crime rates will often cause many Americans look in the mirror and seek solutions to our own shortcomings. For some, travel is needed to prove Americans even have shortcomings. These are the people who need travel the most, and yet, they are the ones least likely to ever acquire or use a passport.
Make no mistake – the US has an empire. To vote in a country that keeps military bases in nearly every corner of the world while having little to no knowledge of that world, is a recipe for disaster.
Our votes affect the lives of billions of people around the globe. To never meet one of those people face-to-face, to never experience their daily lives, to never eat and drink with them, to never know them, makes them little more than an idea. They are a preconceived notion of what you imagine them to be. They are not real human beings, and therefore, much easier to dismiss, fear, and bomb without a second thought.
We are at an unprecedented time in history for travel and communication, with advances like affordable jet flights, GPS maps, mobile phones, language apps, and the mother of all connectors – the internet. Travel has never been easier, faster, or more accessible.
Our great-grandparents couldn’t have fathomed the ease and speed with which people today can move around the planet. They also couldn’t fathom not taking advantage of it if given the opportunity.
Americans have the opportunity. Take it. If we want to lead the world, we must see it, know it, and experience it.
While the tools of communication are more advanced than ever, the level of communication has devolved. Actual discourse has been reduced to on-screen ranting. That is not real communication. That is not human contact.
Humanity is what we feel, see, smell, taste and experience. It’s the people we meet. It is never “fake news.”
It’s life.
Take baby steps out the door if you must. Start small. It takes less effort and money than you think it does. But it certainly takes curiosity and an open mind- two things in short supply and desperately needed these days.
It also takes a little blue book with blank pages ready to be filled.