sitting in a railway station, got a ticket for my destination

travel.



i get a huge adrenaline rush from flying across the world.
i have a passion for sleeping on the floor of a rondeval.
i fall in love with the little faces and bare feet sticking out of school windows.
i am so excited by the isolation of being in a sea of people who don't speak english.

why do we travel?
it is selfish?

i am often confronted with the idea that we should first help out needy americans instead of traveling to other countries to do humanitarian work. this argument bothers me to no end.
i can't stand it.

here's what i say:
people are people are people are people. no matter where they live. or what language they speak or how rich or poor they are. the act of loving another person, reaching out to them, exchanging energy and soul and life with another person DEFIES ALL geographical boundaries.

maybe it's a little (a lot?) bogus of us to think that we're helping people when we fly in our extravagant jets to gawk at their poverty... but, when the opportunity to enrich yourself or a fellow citizen of the world presents itself don't pass it up. why would you? how could you? learning another language, eating foreign food, being crammed into mass transit with chickens and naked babies and people who don't have the luxury of a daily shower, feeling the sting of bad water in your belly-- this is WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT, folks.
do it. get out there. live a little.

and GIVE. give until you think it's all going to be gone. because guess what? appreciation, love, humility... never run out.