Why Travel Is Important
I have just finished watching a Rick Steves interview on why he travels. Among other things he says, “This is a fascinating world.” He says that travel is sort of Maslow’s Hierarchy. First, one gets food, shelter and then progresses through the different levels to self-actualization. He thinks there is even a higher level to Maslow that of altruism. Learning about different values, beliefs.
I was I remembered my own experiences on the road. I have been to Greece, backpacked several times through Europe, including Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, and England, driven cross-country three times, been to the former Soviet Union and Central Asia. I have learned through all of this that famous sights are secondary. What is of memory to me are the people I’ve met and the experiences I have had.
One example: the time I met an American woman in Switzerland who was vacationing from her job in Paris. She invited me to visit her the next time I was in Paris. A few weeks later, I went to Paris and she introduced me to several friends. I was able to stay free on the left bank near the Sorbonne in a fifth-floor apartment rented by a Marxist who was away. I was surrounded by friends and we had wonderful dinners, discussions, and picnics. We went to concerts, visited the many art museums and I learned on a real level how the French view Americans. It was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life.
Another experience that I value was the three hour discussion with a Spanish tour guide while standing at the tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. Juan Carlos had just come to power and the Spanish people were jubilant. In Greece, I was there during the Greek-Turkish Conflict and I remember being caught outside after curfew. I remember drinking Ouzo at Sintagma (spelling?) Square and talking with Greek citizens about the return of their leader from exile. Taxis were honking and people were cheering and dancing in the streets. The right-wing dictatorship had fallen.
Nothing can ever replace the knowledge I gained and the experiences I had. Rick Steves is right. Travel is enlightening and filled with memorable experiences. As Tennyson said, “I cannot rest from a Travel.”
https://youtu.be/9GWoQq-j1ms
I learned much about the rest of the world by befriending my international students. And was fortunate to stay in their family homes and learn that they lived not much different from the way we do in United States, regardless of country. I also experienced martial law, curfew violation, and views of the United States that were not as friendly, while they welcomed me wholeheartedly because I was not a greedy tourist. I avoided taking guided tours rather than traveling by myself like you did in order to involve myself with the people while visiting some of each country's monuments, natural or social like peoples' opinion of Marcos in the streets of Manila and seeing Douglas MacArthur's car rusting neglected in a gun turret at Fort Santiago.
Staying with the rich in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I was impressed with the quaint quietness of the city with few motor vehicles in 1977. Yet I believe I ate every chicken my host had running around in his walled compound, because none were present while I ate my curried chicken and peas every night.
Perhaps the reason that many actors are altruistic is because when they are months filming, "on location," they spend a lot of time with the local people, learning of their cultures and their needs. Unfortunately, many "America First" people tend to view altruistic actors as liberals or worse, communists when nothing further from the truth.
Ron