“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” ~ Mark Twain

I was speaking with fellow yesterday who had spent the greater part of his life of 45 years or so in the same county in Northeast Georgia. Having been born an Army brat my childhood was anything but static. Born in Europe, temporary resident in a number of US states, I had my fair share of travel early on.

During our conversation my new acquaintance described his appreciation for what it must have taken to change schools, homes and friends so often, but I assured him that in so doing one learns to make friends quickly and learn to adapt, especially as a child. I, in turn, expressed my respect for the long-term friends he described, many of which were either neighborhood pals or schoolmates from years earlier than he could remember.

There are no doubt advantages and disadvantages to both styles of childhood, and to the degree that each of us made good use of the advantages and mitigated the disadvantages, we developed character and gained perspective on the world around us.

That said, there are few substitutes worthy of note when stacked against travel. Travel, to me, is synonymous with exploration. It exposes you to the unfamiliar in varying degrees, depending on where you go, where you stay and how you move about. Most importantly, it provides a change in rhythm, which triggers a change in pace, which influences enormously the way in which you experience life.

Rhythms can become stale and predictable when they are overly repetitive.

The current Delta Sky magazine features an article about Parisian life and the French ethic, two qualities I have explored significantly in my travels over the years. The rhythms of life in France, and in Paris in particular, are quite unlike any other in the States, for example. The author describes living in Paris as being “…the privilege of being a part of something both desirable and enigmatic. It is the thrill of constantly seeing things in a new light.”

What a great way to describe it. And what a wonderful way to look at life! I’ve lived in places where I took advantage of what the local environs had to offer and I’ve lived in others where I unconsciously took the area’s charms and special wonders for granted, if not overlooking them. What a terrible waste!

It is easy to explore your local community, the lands just beyond. More than anything it takes a little gumption to step out of an old and familiar rhythm and into a new, unfamiliar and exciting rhythm that challenges you on many levels. If you have the opportunity to travel beyond that, by all means, dare to enjoy it!

Properly considered, the differences in texture, rhythm, perspective and value will broaden your horizons and give you new respect for that which is different. Suffering through it defensively, however, will only serve to crystallize your prejudices. As with my previously described acquaintance, you can make a lot or a little out of a little or a lot.

So why not aim for the gold and let your vision be enhanced by new experiences at home and abroad, as well as by a new experience of that which may be dreadfully familiar to you.

What do you have to lose?