Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Israel's security, I am unlikely to be able to sympathize with the Palestinian
perspective...unless I see the issue from outside my home culture. In Iran
recently, I watched an Al-Jazeera report on the American-funded wall being
built by Israel around a Palestinian community. Politically, I may understand
the rationale and need for this wall. But even without understanding the
words of that TV documentary, I could also empathize with the visceral
anger Muslims might feel—observing as, brick by brick, their humiliated
fellow Muslims had their sunlight literally walled out.
I come away from experiences like this one, not suddenly convinced of
an opposing viewpoint...but with a creeping discomfort about my coni dence
in the way I've always viewed the world. Whether reading the Bible through
the eyes of Christians from other cultures, or having your hometown blind-
ers wedged open by looking at another religion a new way, travel can be a
powerfully spiritual experience.
Get Beyond Your Comfort Zone—Choose to Be Challenged
I've long been enthusiastic about how travel can broaden your perspective.
But I didn't always preach this gospel very smartly. Back in the 1970s, in my
early days as a tour organizer and guide, I drove 50 or so people each year
around Europe in little minibus tours. I had a passion for getting my travel-
ers beyond their comfort zones. Looking back, I cringe at the crudeness, or
even cruelty, of my techniques.
As a 25-year-old hippie-backpacker-turned-tour-organizer, I had a
notion that soft and spoiled American travelers would benei t from a little
hardship. I'd run tours with no hotel reservations and observe the irony of
my tour members (who I cynically suspected were unconcerned about home-
lessness issues in their own communities) being nervous at the prospect of
a night without a bed. If, by mid-afternoon, I hadn't arranged for a hotel,
they couldn't focus on my guided town walks. In a wrong-headed attempt
to force empathy on my l ock, I made a point to let them feel the anxiety of
the real possibility of no roof over their heads.
Back when I was almost always younger than anyone on my tour, I made
my groups sleep in Munich's huge hippie circus tent. With simple mattresses
on a wooden l oor and 400 roommates, it was like a cross between Woodstock
and a slumber party. One night I was stirred out of my sleep by a woman sit-
ting up and sobbing. With the sound of backpackers rutting in the distance,
she whispered, apologetically, “Rick, I'm not taking this so very well.”
