Transatlantic travel still amazes me. We nod off as we leave the soggy ground in Boston and several hours later we're awakened by the pilot's welcome as we touch down in the bone dryness of Spain.
Staring out the window as we approach the terminal in Madrid I flashed back to a man I hadn't thought about in decades. I met him in Bakersfield, California, and had commented to him that I had just made the drive there from Los Angeles (about 90-minutes). He looked up and said, "I've never been to Los Angeles."
Long pause.
“Really?” I said in disbelief. This guy must have been in his late 30’s, he owned a nice car and had a decent job, as I later learned. There wasn't any hardship preventing him from making the trip. And yet the 2nd largest city in the U.S. was 90-minutes south of his front door and he simply never bothered to take a peek.
There was a graduation speaker who, many years ago, encouraged his audience to see the world. I wish this guy had heard him. He said, “Imagine having the means to travel and yet going nowhere.” I wondered if that guy is still there, still sticking close to home.
Why does that matter? Lots of reasons actually, not the least of which is that a stay-in-your-comfort-zone-at-all-costs attitude is a barrier to discovering the whole spectrum of life that's here to be lived. This isn't so much about exotic travel; it's about getting to know the neighbor just down the street, in the next city, or perhaps across the ocean. As one person illustrated the point: “Imagine you love reading books and one day the librarian mentions there’s an upstairs.” And to think you might have missed it.
What holds us down? I imagine it's the usual suspects: ignorance and fear. They hold us in our seats and rob us of the wonder, the mobility, the happiness, and the joys we experience when we venture out of our boxes and see what life has to offer -- and embrace it. If we’re not open to learning something new about a nearby community or a faraway land, it’s more difficult to spot what's new and good here in our own lives.
I'm heading into a country where I can't speak the language, where I don't know most of the people, and yet where I'm convinced there are exciting discoveries to make, people to meet, unfamiliar cultural practices to get used to, and because of all that an enormous value to be added that will enrich my life.
I think I hear that librarian whispering to me, “There’s an upstairs!”
