Apr

5

Why We Travel

Posted by Larry Habegger

With all of the uncertainty shaking up the world right now (hasn’t it always been this way?) in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Japan, and recently in Egypt and Tunisia, you begin to wonder where you should travel these days and what places you should avoid. The renowned author of many novels and travel books, Paul Theroux, has an answer: go just about anywhere.

He wrote in a recent New York Times essay that if you’re willing to put up with some discomfort and able to be flexible with your movements, the rewards of travel in troubled places are enormous. Such travel can show you the utter stupidity of much human conflict and the inspiring ways people manage to live their lives.

And isn’t that ultimately why we travel? To understand life on our planet and see how others express their humanity?

Rough travel can be, well, rough, and sometimes the lessons learned come only in retrospect, but they are lessons worth learning, now and in the future.

Filed Under Adventure Travel, Travel


Comments

One Response to “Why We Travel”

  1. Richard Pook on May 18th, 2011 11:00 am

    We ultimately travel because of the richness of life and perspective it gives us. I have the joy of sailing other people’s yachts for a living and spend many a moment in beautiful peaceful surroundings. It’s the natural beauty of the world that puts the little things in life into perspective.

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