The Blue Marble

One of the things that appeals to me about travel is that you board a metal cylinder and pop out the other end in a different world from the one you left. When I was early in my travel experiences, I found that as I traveled more, I craved even more different worlds from my own on the other end.

Growing up in the United States, my journey began with dips over the northern border (to Niagara Falls) and the southern border (Tijuana, when it still considered pretty safe). I moved to Eastern Europe for work when I was in my upper twenties. At the time, I had a two handfuls of countries under my belt. I was determined to see as much of the region as I could while I was there. After two years, I moved back home and  took a job in Boston that offered opportunities to travel to Western European countries. It was not enough and after two years I took a job where I supported a small set of Latin American countries. Five years later, I went looking for a position that offered the possibility of travel to Africa. I traveled to a dozen countries in Africa over my seven years there. Then I left that organization for a gig that put me in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Christmastime in Dhaka. It’s freezing by the way.

Let’s stop there. One lesson that I learned during these years is that new destinations continued to stump me and cause wonder. I arrived in Mozambique expecting its neighbor Tanzania. It was not. I arrived in Costa Rica expecting Belize or Panama. It was neither. It was time to stop assuming stuff and just open my eyes and watch. One thing I’ve learned over thirty years of travel is that my journey is still a work in progress.

And then something else happened. It wasn’t a different world I was finding; it was the same. I leaned in and looked closer. People, families, meals together, a grown daughter’s wedding, a college graduation, holiday festivals, funerals. It was the same world, but it was wondrous for me and life to them.

Recently, I listened to a podcast interview of the first Iranian woman in space. I don’t think I had ever heard an astronaut speak so beautifully about the experience. When viewed from space, Earth has no nations and no borders and no tribes. We live on an orb of greens and browns and blues and whites. Boundaries are built by humans. And humans should tear them down.