Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Introduction
On a visit to Turkey, I met a dervish. Dervishes—who are sort of like Mus-
lim monks—follow Rumi, a mystic poet and philosopher of divine love. (I
like to think Rumi and St. Francis would hit it of well.) h ey're called “whirling
dervishes” because they spin in a circle as they pray. h e dervish allowed me to
observe his ritual on the condition that I understood what it meant to him.
h e dervish led me to his l at rooftop—a peaceful oasis in the noisy city of
Konya—where he prayed i ve times a day. With the sun heavy and red on the hori-
zon, he explained, “When we pray, we keep one foot in our community, anchored
in our home. h e other foot steps around and around like this, acknowledging the
beautiful variety of God's creation…touching all corners of this great world. I raise
one hand up to acknowledge the love of God, and the other hand goes down like
the spout of a teapot. As I spin around, my hand above receives the love from our
Creator, and my hand below showers it onto all of his creation.”
As the dervish whirled and whirled, he settled into a meditative
trance. And so did I. Watching his robe billow out and his head
tilt over, I saw a conduit of love acknowledging the
greatness of God. h is man was so
dif erent from me, yet actually very
much the same. h is chance interac-
tion left me with a renewed appreciation
of the rich diversity of humanity…as well as its
fundamental oneness.
Experiences like this one can be any trip's
most treasured souvenir. When we return
home, we can put what we've learned—
our newly acquired broader perspec-
tive—to work as citizens of a great
nation confronted with unprec-
edented challenges. And when
we do that, we make travel a
political act.
