Travel

Travel teaches tolerance.
Benjamin Disraeli

How far have you traveled? There is a lot to be said for staying your whole life in one community and getting to know it really well. For sending your children to the same teacher you had when you were little. For always having your family and freinds living nearby. For having continuity in your life. I used to be jealous of people who live like that; the way our ancestors used to live. But having your life totally predictable and surrounding yourself always with people and places you are very familiar and comfortable with is a recipe for staying stuck.

When you travel, you are constantly exposed to new things, often things that you didn't anticipate. Traveling to other countries is probably the most valuable education anyone could have because you learn that not everyone lives like you do. In some places people are fabulously wealthy and in others they have to live on the equivalent of one cup of rice a day. In some places people spend their days in high rise office buildings and in other places people are spend their days close to the land and to nature. Some cultures think it is rude to wipe your nose in public and others think it is rude not to.

When you travel, you quickly learn that your own culture and your own way of life is not the only way, or even the best way, for everyone to live. Everywhere, people find the way of life that works best for their particular situation. You discover that people everywhere have the same kinds of problems but have developed unique solutions for them. The same solution doesn't work for everyone. Travel teaches tolerance. It teaches you respect for other ways of life, other cultures, and other circumstances. Take a trip to somewhere different soon.