Tag: why travel

I have been captivated recently by Donald Miller’s insistence that our lives are stories waiting to be told. As we all know, some stories are better than others. Don gives four key elements of what makes a good story. A Character Who Wants Something And Overcomes Conflict To Get It Think about it. Run any…
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I love hearing people’s stories of why and where they travel, and how traveling transforms who they are. I sat down with my friend Drew, a seasoned traveler and student of wisdom, to talk about his life journey thus far.

I’m not the first, and I know I won’t be the last foreigner who will leave home for a few years to occupy a small space in Korea as an English teacher. This method of travel has been around for sometime now, and I’m sure it’ll last for years to come. When I decided to make the move to Korea I never fooled myself into thinking that anyone’s lives – student or otherwise – would be forever changed after I moved on.

Our lives follow the circular seasons of creation, sometimes in the spring of new beginnings, sometimes in the barren brokenness of a deep winter. As travelers, these seasons are enunciated by the constant decision-making of our daily survival. Where to sleep, what to eat, how to spend this day, when to go to the next country. These decisions are guided by priorities and held in check by tensions felt and unseen.

Our buts are a masquerade for fear. They are an excuse to keep us from what we want and where we’re headed. No matter their legitimacy, the buts that stifle our dreams don’t have to get in the way.

Too often we rally against those who are different. Their differences are the fodder of our hate while our lack of understanding and empathy is the very oxygen breathing life into the flame of indifference, unkindness, and disregard. When we become comfortable with the idea of placing people into inferior categories, the substance of our differences can adopt many faces: cultural, racial, sexual preferential; gender, occupation, shape, fashion. Doesn’t matter. Our prejudices will hone in on the divisive and equate it with the negative, the wrong, and the less than.

How do we get from commercial outrage to united understanding? One step at a time. And maybe the first step for many of us needs to be outside of ourselves and into the lives of someone different, some place foreign. Whether that’s travel to third-world countries or to the neighborhood across town, our better selves are waiting there for us. There is great value in a global perspective.

Your DVD shelf is packed with good movies shot in all kinds of exotic locales. But how many have motivated you to get out and see them for yourself? With no claims of superiority or comprehensiveness by any stretch, here are some of my favorite stories which ignite a flame for travel under my cush tush.
What are some of yours?