THE BENEFITS OF TRAVELING LIKE A WORLD CITIZEN
The personal benefits of world citizen travel are many. The following are the ones that I found to be significant.
1. We Begin to Feel More Secure in the World We Live In
At this time in our history there is more fear and insecurity than ever before because of the sheer unpredictability of events. The whole reason terrorism works is that people never know when or how a strike will take place, and the government and media often play on our fears and the lack of stability. I heard a woman in a small town in the Midwest say how afraid she was that her little bowling alley would be targeted next; she thought the terrorists wanted rural people to feel as insecure as New Yorker so the heartland would be their next target. Films, television, media, newspapers, all report daily stories about violence within our nation and every story leaves an impression. However, when we travel around the world we soon discover that there are friendly and decent people everywhere and most of our fears are unwarranted. I have found that most people can be trusted. As I reflected upon our months of travel to various countries, I was not surprised that we had very few negative experiences.
India was the third country we visited on our trip and Jaipur was the second city in India. It is known as the “Pink City” because the beautiful sandstone walls and buildings give the city a pink glow at dawn and dusk. Its beauty made it easy to understand why Jaipur had become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the state of Rajasthan. On bazaar day, it is alive with vendors selling everything from honey, pottery, wheat, gems, textiles and saris. On our first day there, we discovered that the festival of Gangaur, honoring the Goddess Gangaur, was to be celebrated within a few days. We extended our visit so we would not miss this important celebration.
The festival is considered a favorable occasion for young people to choose their life partners. Newly wedded brides are careful to observe the fasts and rituals designed for the 18-day celebration. They paint their hands with henna and decorate small wooden idols known as “matherans.” Adolescent girls go from home to home carrying lit earthen pots and singing songs as people give them small amounts of cash and handfuls of sweets.
The colorful processions include elephants, camels, horses, and chariots, a real treat for a family from Vermont. The main deity of the festival is taken from the Palace Gate known as Tripolia and carried across the city. We left our hotel as the resounding trumpets echoed throughout the city, excited to see the beautifully painted elephants and decorated horses. As we meandered about taking in the sights, sounds and smells the procession began. We found ourselves inside a massive moving crowd.
At first, we felt relatively calm because we were all holding hands. Joven lead the way and Lydia was in the center; I followed up in the rear. One by one we were separated from each other and an overwhelming sense of security swept over me. The crowd was uniformly made up of men and boys. Suddenly I did not know where my young daughter was. Within moments, unbeknownst to me, an alert shop owner noticed my husband looking nervously over his shoulder, obviously searching for someone. The man lifted the gate to his shop, which his family had been standing behind to watch the parade. He thrust his hand into the crowd and Joven quickly grabbed it. The man pulled him inside. Joven turned around and immediately looked for Lydia. It did not take long to spot her – in a crowd of Indian men, a white girl stands out starkly — and they pulled her in too.
I was still lost. I had fallen behind in the crowd and was approaching a state of panic. When I passed the shop, I saw my family and the shop owner joyfully pulled me into the fold. This man was a complete stranger, yet he took the time to rescue us. Once we were all together, he lowered the gate and I immediately felt secure again. It was a sign to me that security can be found anywhere in which a single person is willing to reach out and help. We did not speak the shop owner’s language, but we were able to express our gratitude clearly as our faces relaxed into smiles of relief. He invited us to stay and watch the procession from the safety of his shop.
In today’s insecure world we can begin to feel more secure simply because by making the effort to extend ourselves in a personal way to another person in kindness. When you reach out as a simple human being, all kinds of barriers break down. Fear of cultures unlike your own diminishes greatly because you are learning about these societies by developing personal relationships with local community members, not by listening to a story on the nightly news broadcast.
2. We Develop and Build Spiritual Qualities
I believe that the development of a spiritual life happens while traveling without us even realizing it. When we travel outside of our culture with open eyes, our hearts open too as we experience life outside of our day-to-day routines. When we break out of our familiar life, we can experience increased open-mindedness, acceptance, gratefulness, and an attitude of trust. I believe traveling takes us away from our everyday lives just long enough to break our daily habit, which allows us to answer questions that will deepen wisdom and help us expand as individuals. “What do I believe in?” “Am I really happy?” “Am I making a contribution?” “Do I have meaningful relationships in my life?”
America, today, is under a great deal of scrutiny. Around the world people say that we have lost our way. I have heard my Mexican neighbors question American values saying, “We may have more poverty here in Mexico, but it is a financial poverty. Poverty in the United States is spiritual.” We need to look within ourselves to find our own essential nature and stop looking for peace and happiness in possessions.
A study conducted by the think tank “New Economics Foundation” suggests that “people can live, long, happy lives without consuming large amounts of the Earth’s resources.” This survey ranked a small island in the pacific as the happiest country in the world, Mexico was 2nd, the U.K. was 108th and the U.S. was 150th. Some people I have spoken to about this are shocked that people could be happier in a third-world nation than in a developed nation. After all, don’t they have to do without all the time? Interestingly, people who have traveled are often able to guess the outcome of the happiness survey because they have seen happiness on the faces of people who are sitting outside a hut.
Too many people in developed countries have not learned the art of resting in each moment and in the simplicity of what is. With so many baby boomers choosing to move to Mexico (an estimated 1.5 million so far, and many more to follow during the next twenty years) I began to question what the attraction was to our southern neighbor. I thought at first that it might be the lower cost of living, or the golf courses, beaches and resorts. But my husband said that it was the people and the slower way of life, the neighborhoods that are alive and vibrant, the outdoor markets, and the pilgrimages that bring communities together. “Even the walking pace is noticeably slower,” he said.
Whenever I asked Americans in Mexico who were experiencing life outside of the United States for the very first time, they generally agreed that people here just seemed to be happier. I wondered, what exactly is happiness? Psychologist Jonathan Freedman wrote that “people generally agree about what they mean by happiness. It is a positive, enduring state that consists of positive feelings…and includes both peace of mind and active pleasures or joy.” In a University of Maryland survey, Mexico was rated the second happiest nation in the world. http://thehappinessshow.com/HappiestCountries.htm
This doesn’t have to be complicated — the search for happiness. Often it is found by just slowing down and resting in each moment and in the simplicity of what is. The only moment in which one can find true happiness is the one we are in. The past is gone. The future is far away. We have been convinced by the media that we shouldn’t be satisfied with what we have, that there is so much more to buy, to achieve, to conquer. We think our little lives are dreary and boring, and out of that conviction, we reject the present moment. It isn’t exciting enough, glamorous enough. Instead of fleeing from this moment in the search of something better, why not pause and investigate the cause of our agitation.
You don’t have to travel to teach yourself the art of simplicity. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you can learn a profound lesson on caring deeply for yourself at that very moment. But travel can bring about extraordinary transformation simply because you are exposing yourself to new impressions. Through travel, I went from being closed-minded to open-minded, from being judgmental to accepting, from being suspicious to trusting, from having a scarcity mentality to prosperity thinking, from being begrudging to generous, from being competitive to cooperative.
3. We Learn to Celebrate Diversity
“My family’s trip around the world has increased my desire to learn about life all over the glove. The world seems so much more connected than it was when my parents were my age. I not only have friends in Ghana, England and Japan now, but I am able to learn a lot from them by remaining in touch through the internet. I want to continue learning about the world forever.” That is a quote from Lydia after a world tour. It beautifully reflects the connections she made and the profound appreciation for diversity she never could have gotten had it not been for those connections.
As the world becomes increasingly homogenized, we can choose to have a travel experience that is pretty much the same as the one we have at home. We can eat at McDonalds nearly everywhere in the world and stay at 4-star hotels. But how boring is that? All across Europe and in much of the globe you will find the familiar chain restaurants, large box stores and commonplace hotels we see in all American cities. You can only visit travel sites in the guide books where you will see other Americans carrying the same brand of camera and guidebook. For my money, one may as well take a travel video out at the library.
Visiting another country could be an opportunity to encounter the diversity of a new country, not a way to take home with us; it is as if you packed it in a suitcase along with your toothpaste and underwear. Perhaps it is uncomfortable at times, but when you take yourself off the beaten track and meet the people and customs of a new culture, you are celebrating diversity, and that is a joy that is not to be missed.
Isn’t it great we aren’t all the same? My husband and I are two very different people, and when we disagree I sometimes fall into judging him as “wrong” and me as “right.” We aren’t respectfully listening to one another’s viewpoint, we are doing battle. When we practice listening, however, we find it much easier to reach a joint decision that works for both of us.
It is the same when a diverse group of people gather for the purpose of making decisions within a community, state, nation, or world. We need a process that allows all voices to be heard so that the best possible decision will ultimately be reached. It may not look or feel that way while in the process, which seems chaotic to those who are only accustomed to old models where answers are handed down from on high. The leaders take charge and don’t bother asking for group input. It might be faster and more expedient to do it the old way, but the end result is truly worth the effort when you bring in diverse points of view. There are several new models for how a group can come together in new and respectful ways. I have listed four.
When people talk about diversity, they often mean differences in various cultures. But it can also point simply to diverse opinions within the same culture. The one factor that most promotes diversity is listening. I once participated in something called “deliberate dialogue” at my college. This term suggests a conversation that everyone knows will bring up conflict. We chose several topics for discussion, including abortion rights and gay marriage – not what you would call tame subjects. A group of eight of us sat at a round table and each person revealed his or her personal beliefs and feelings. Each speaker had equal air time as the rest of us practiced our listening skills until it was our turn to speak. No questions, interruptions, or comments were allowed, but everyone got to speak if they desired.
What was unusual about this venue is that nobody was trying to change anyone else’s opinions. We were all able to express our own beliefs and have them heard by the group. The purpose of listening was to recognize our common ground, the ideas that were underneath the surface opinions and beliefs. At that deep and mysterious level, we were all able to celebrate diversity, to find the universal truths that speak to us all. Diversity does not just mean finding what we have in common. It means looking at the differences and appreciating them. I noticed that the more comfortable I became with my own beliefs, the more I was able to let others be different from me. I believe that when people are fundamentally unsure of themselves, they have to wrestle others to the ground and pound “the truth” into them.
Travel forces you to come face to face with diversity. When you travel, you come across a broader kind of understanding of humanity than you do when sitting in your living room surrounded by people you grew up with. Travel teaches us to celebrate diversity simply because it shows us how the rest of the world lives. One way to see this vividly is to spend a typical day in their community. My family volunteered our time at a local school and at an orphanage, we spent a day in a rural village where tourists rarely go, we sat in cafes and watched on as the daily activities of the inhabitants went on all around us. There are many other ways of getting involved with local communities when traveling: staying at locally owned places, arranging home stays with host families, traveling by public transportation, discovering out-of-the-way places of interest, or performing community service work wherever it is needed most. All of this leads to the creation of building personal relationships because you are right there in their lives. When we participated in new cultures this way, it taught us to recognize the beauty in every person. This recognition led us to celebrate the world’s diversity as well as increasing our desire to create a world where all voices are heard and honored.
What matters most when viewing another culture is to avoid judging people and their customs by your own standards and making a decision about their national character based on those judgements. American tourists can easily fall into the habit of regarding these cultures as “less than” their own. Remember that many of them have traditions that are literally thousands of years old and you are only peeking in for one hour or one day. You cannot possibly grasp the complexity of it in that amount of time or grasp why people operate the way they do. What you can do is open your heart and approach every new experience with appreciation.
Ultimately, it is my hope that if we all learn to celebrate diversity, we will create a global community in which locals will no longer be displaced by tourists and their resorts. And the tourist will not longer be seen as an outsider, but as a friend they haven’t met before.
4. We Develop Patience
When you travel in foreign lands, even the most commonplace of acts, the ones we take for granted every day at home, can be a hassle. Paying for a cup of coffee with the right change, driving and obeying alien traffic laws, asking directions – can all be an exercise in frustration, especially when you don’t speak the language or understand customs and laws. If you keep expecting a task to take five minutes, the way it would at home, and it takes thirty minutes instead, you will be a ball of frustration by sundown. The only way to enjoy yourself is to slow down and practice acceptance. Let go and liberate yourself from expectations about how long something should take or how hard it should be. A good mantra would be: It is what it is. It sounds simple, but in fact, it is a phrase that has a deeper meaning than it appears to at first. It means that reality is a stream that flows around you. You can either choose to be part of that stream or you can try to fight it.
The key quality to have when you want to go with the stream is patience. Without patience, you actually lessen the pleasure of your experience. With it, you can turn your attention towards fostering a calm state of mind and relish the awareness that everything is unfolding just as it should. Patience is a natural by-product of slowing down. It allows you to blend in with other cultures with grace and dignity, instead of acting like the “ugly American” and demanding that everything be done the way it is at home. It happens when you stop pitting your own agenda against reality. I can tell you from experience: reality always wins.
To slow down, you have to actually view time differently. You have to remember that time is seen in a completely different way in many places in the world. An appointment set up for 4:00 is often more of a suggestion than a demand. Waiting in line for an hour is just one way of passing the afternoon, not a waste of time. There is no point in rushing around to get things done; what isn’t finished today will be finished tomorrow. And there isn’t a big distinction made between work and free time. Owners of small shops, for instance, will often spend fifteen hours a day there, but they see their families who sometimes live in the back room, friends stop by, and they read the newspaper when business is slow. It’s just life. Westerners like to control their time, and “free time” is highly valued. A massive distinction is made between work and play. What I see is people who try so hard to maximize their play time that they return to work exhausted. They spend so much money on leisure activities that they have to work longer hours just to support their hobby.
The beauty of this lesson is that when we learn patience on holiday, we can bring it home with us. We return relaxed and rested in our own body in ways we never experienced before. We watched ourselves in frustrating circumstances, yet maintaining a sense of calm. This allows us to bring that peace and acceptance to our own neighbors and communities. We learn to live in the moment, knowing that one of the most precious gifts we have to offer others is our own inner peace.
5. We Become Students Again
Learning about new lands and cultures is an exciting adventure. It satisfies our hunger for cultural knowledge, world history, and world religions in a way that can never done by reading a book or watching a TV show. Our lives are greatly enriched by the new knowledge and many find a renewed enthusiasm for learning.
Learning about new lands is always exciting, and it’s an adventure if you approach it as one. It can satisfy our hunger for cultural knowledge and fill in gaps in our knowledge of the world.
Our minds are habitual and fixated, meaning they are preoccupied with the same beliefs day after day. You could say we are imprisoned by our own belief systems. When a new idea comes along through exposure to another culture, it suddenly burst open the system like a warden with a key. Suddenly we can step out and see the world in a whole new way. This reminds me of a dream I had once; it ended with me standing there with a key in my hand. I was excited because I knew my life was about to change. I just knew it. The key meant there was a door to open – a new door to a new life.
If you really want to approach travel as a student, which means with a curious mind, then you have to keep a journal. It’s not that you don’t learn anything without one, but you go deeper into yourself with one. It always brings up new questions at the end of the day. And the next day, you are aware that you have to ask more questions, questions that before you didn’t know existed. Throughout the day while you’re walking around, you are taking in impressions all the time. There is no time to process them because there’s always a new impression. At the end of the cay, you can create the space to gain more insight into what happened to you because you can sit quietly with pen in hand. I am often surprised at what I find while I’m writing in my journal. Writing gives curiosity a blank canvas on which to create. Years later, you can pick up the journal and read it and it gives rise to new insight. You might see how you’ve changed as individuals and how your family has changed since that trip. It can be very illuminating.
For some, making the space to write is a spiritual practice. They talk and share as a family about what happened during the day, discussing what they appreciated or what they found disappointing. In this way, they share the learning and come together more as a family. They begin to recognize in each other what gives them life. It is a great tool for processing experiences more deeply. Many people find that they don’t know what they learned until they write about it.
A lot of people don’t keep journals at home, but they do keep one when they travel. Later, it serves as a precious keepsake to help them remember sights, sounds, flavors, smells, conversations and experiences.
After my family embarked upon our journey, Lydia and I wrote constantly so we would remember what we were learning. I found that by creating time to write as often as I could, I increased my understanding about what I had experienced. Lydia and I would buy the local newspapers and engage in conversations about events with each other, or with the people we encountered, like hotel staff, waiters, public transportation drivers, indigenous groups, school teachers and fellow travelers.
One day after we returned home. Lydia reflected on how our world trip had impacted her. “Traveling around the world was my greatest learning ever. I was home schooled for my freshman year in high school, so seeing the world really educated me! I am proud of this experience because I was able to learn more in the months of travel than I did for most of my life. I learned what life is like outside the United States. Just by meeting people from other cultures, people outside my own small community, it allowed me to have deeper experiences than most people my age. The trip changed my perspective forever. Now I know I am here to change the world.”
I knew that my daughter had a particular thirst to learn about world religions. As she researched and studied them, I became interested too, which is another sign that travel can bring families closer together. Before that I had had little or no information about any religion except Christianity. Part of the problem was that, as a child, I was taught that curiosity about other religions was wrong because Christianity was the only true path. My mother did not even like me to play with the Catholic family down the road because we belonged to the Church of Christ, which is very strong in the South. So when my daughter expressed an interest in other faiths, the old beliefs reared their head and I was a bit apprehensive. One day out of the blue, Lydia announced that she was a Taoist. I had never even heard of Taoism so I was baffled. I think a part of me was also afraid because I was always afraid of things I knew nothing about. But I remembered what Gandhi said about all religions: “I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. I believe that they are all God-given and I believe that they were necessary for the people to whom these religions were revealed. And I believe that, if only we could all of us read the scriptures of the different faiths from the standpoint of the followers of these faiths, that they were at bottom all one and were all helpful to one another.”
So ultimately I came to accept that even though Lydia was a child, she was a student just like me on a personal journey of belief. As her mother, I had to respect that. I had to trust that the spiritual path that was calling her was the right one for her.
Sometimes the most powerful teacher for a willing student is a powerful experience, especially in an area where the student has a lot of entrenched opinions. A single experience can dislodge a lifetime of opinions.
The first country we visited on our trip was primarily of the Hindu faith, another religion I knew nothing about. Our taxi driver from the airport into the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia told us about a pilgrimage called Thaipusam. There is a great deal of chanting, swaying and fasting while preparing for this 3-day pilgrimage. We hired Raj, a local guide, to accompany us to it. He was a young family man who just left his job as a nurse at a local hospital.
We joined over one million Hindus for this pilgrimage to the holy site of Batu Caves. Such a pilgrimage is hard to describe! Over 500 stalls are set up along the way to the caves, all selling colorful orchid garlands, sweets made of ghee and rice, peacock feathers, and other offerings to be gifted to the Hindu Gods. In some of the stalls, inches of dark hair from shaved heads, painted orange with tumeric, carpet the ground. (One stall claims to have shaved over 500 heads in the first eight hours of business.) This custom symbolizes personal gratitude for answered prayers. Yellow-clad worshippers walk many miles; some show their dedication by piercing their skin with hooks and skewers. Others carry intricately-carved, brass pots overflowing with milk. Family members and friends assist the dedicated pilgrims who have not eaten in days. To reach the massive Batu Cave, they climb 272 stairs, and the frenzy increases as thousands of worshippers rise into the heart of the cave.
When we enter it, our guide, Raj, speaks to us at length about his personal belief of “One god, many beliefs.” When we ask him why Hindus do certain things, he only responds by saying, “Why? Well, that is their belief. Our differences should not separate us. We are all connected. We breathe the same air, and that connects us.”
We learned a lot that day from Raj because his words came alive inside those caves. It gave me a palpable understanding of the event. That night I fell asleep and dreamt of all the other questions I needed answers to. That cave was a completely different kind of classroom for me. Many people think back to the days when they were official students — the cheerleaders who wouldn’t let you sit at their table, the jocks that rammed into your locker, the teachers who called on you when you weren’t prepared. This formal education works well for some, but I say that learning outside the classroom teaches you about life.
6. World travel helps us to take a good look at how we have been shaped by our culture.
The very nature of being conditioned by the stories and values we grew up with is that the conditioning is invisible to us. It is simply the air we breathe and we cannot discern it and examine it. As we discover what people from other cultures value and believe, we begin to look at our own values with fresh eyes and see how our own culture has influenced us and perhaps narrowed our perspective. This is a positive thing even though it can feel confusing because suddenly we find that we do not know as much about ourselves as we thought we did.
Sometimes it leads to questioning everything around us. Of course, resistance comes up because questioning often causes unease. Who knows where it will lead? It is as if the rug beneath our feet is being pulled out when we look at our core beliefs. And deep inside, we know that sooner or later, we have to act on our insights. You cannot know something and then pretend you don’t. This means change. Everyone says they want to grow as a person, but most secretly wish they could somehow grow without changing anything about themselves. During times of change and transition, patience needs to be practiced because we are like babies taking baby steps in this new and uncharted territory.
After spending time in many other countries and learning their cultures and affairs, I was surprised the culture shock was not greatly felt while abroad; the culture shock was felt returning to my life in America. I no longer knew how I fit into my American life. I was uncomfortable much of the time, and my life no longer fit me. Some activities that were pleasurable in the past I no longer found to be blindly pleasurable.
It was time to change and act on my insights. After being at home only a few days once, I got into my car and drove fifteen miles to a grocery store. I stood in the snack food aisle and wandered up through the bins of vegetables. I had not seen so much food all in one place in months and I was overwhelmed by the abundance. I began to cry and I wondered what was happening to me. I thought, We have so, so much…so much food, so many things, and so many toys. I left the store empty handed and drove back home. And that is when I began to change my daily routines. I spent entire days without driving my car. (Some days I rode the fifteen miles into town with my husband for no real reason.) I began to food shop more at my local farmer’s markets and co-ops.
I had seen a new map of the world, Peter’s World Map, at my local elementary school. Peter’s World Map was first unveiled at a press conference in Germany in 1974 by historian, Dr. Arno Peters. Immediately, it caused quite a debate because it showed all the countries and continents in their true proportions, and some believed it represented a more honest view of the world. Peters began to promote his new world map as “A New View of the World.”
Looking at it, I felt as though I had been lied to as a student even though no one ever told me directly. The world looked so different through Peter’s eyes. Suddenly, Europe and America didn’t seem like the centers of the universe. I was pretty isolated in Vermont, certainly much more than my husband was in the D.C. suburbs. The Mercator Projection (circa 1569) which is commonly displayed in our schools distorts areas, Europe, Canada, and the Soviet Union are shown as larger than they actually are while South America and Africa are shown as much smaller than they actually are. The Mercator Projection displays Greenland and China as the same size, in reality China is almost four times larger. The Mercator’s Projection also displays Europe in the center and it appears larger than South America. In reality, South America is 6.9 million square miles while Europe is 3.8 million square miles.
Peter concludes that important parts of the third world are misrepresented in size and that the Mercator’s Projection perhaps is still used because it exaggerates the size of white-dominated areas of the world.
Peter’s World Map forced me to take a good look at how I had been shaped by my culture. Standing there in school hallway, the world looked so different. In that moment I realized the subtle message that I had learned, the message that the United States was superior to the rest of the world. And then I got it, we are only one nation, one nation among all nations. Superiority was a very subtle message and not taught directly, yet this subtle message breeds the “ugly American.” One can certainly make the case that there is a connection between our sense of superiority and our over-use of the world’s resources. Peter’s World Map is a necessary teaching element in our schools at this time as the world continues to link through the internet, travel, and globalization. We can begin to educate our kids early about the conditioning that abounds in our society. Fortunately many schools, churches, and non-profits are now using this new map. Peter’s World Map can be ordered through Kate Larson at odtstore@aol.com or 1-413-549-1327.
7. We learn new languages
Learning a new language gifts us with an insider’s view of another culture, and as we study and connect with people using their own language, it brings a personal satisfaction and a deeper understanding of the culture. While vacationing in Mexico my family rented a house with courtyard within the center. Upon opening the old rusty gate, the scent of jasmine and gardenias infused the air. Many potted plants decorated the courtyard within the old stone wall. One day, I accidentally broke a beautifully hand-painted clay pot. Naturally I was concerned and explained in my best Spanish, “Lo siento, I was walking past this potted plant and I tipped it over and broke the pot. Lo siento.”
The gardener looked at me and shrugged his shoulders and merely said, “Ni modo, the pot broke.” Ni modo, pronounced Nee MOH-doh translates “It can’t be helped, or there is nothing that can be done.” For a number of years I raved about what a wonderful expression this was. However when I dug a little deeper I discovered that in societies of oppression, the common people (people on the bottom of the hierarchy) developed cultural traits that helped them to cope with their powerlessness. What I discovered was that in reality “ni modo” was an expression of passivity because of harsh political and religious regimes. This experience in the courtyard encouraged me to learn more about the roots of expressions in different societies before I grew too excited over them.
Even if the world citizen traveler only learns hello, goodbye, please and thank you, people of that country are appreciative that at least we are trying. Making the effort is important. So often I hear tourists immediately ask, “Do you speak English?” This is fine, but at the very least start the conversation with a greeting in the language of the land. You are more likely to win the friendship and trust of the people when you know a little of their language.
My family’s favorite world greeting is heard often while trekking in the Himalayas in Nepal the word is “namaste.” The translation of this wonderful word is, “I greet the god within you.” This means that the first idea we install in our own consciousness and in the others is that we are establishing the common ground of our humanity. I found another definition that I really like — “I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one.” What a gift we received by learning this ancient salutation. Beginning to think about all people in this way is a gift I will always think about when I remember trekking in the Himalayas. Today, the Nepalese greeting fills me with hope for the world’s future because as people travel and change from the impact of their travels, the world will change too. Some tourists even select their vacation destinations based on choosing a language they want to learn.
Travel for the sake of learning a new language is a great tourist option for becoming a world citizen. Worldwide language schools are affordable and you can choose to stay with local families where you are exposed to the language on a daily basis over the ordinary dealings of life. Not only do the local families benefit financially, but this is a wonderful way to immerse yourself completely in an unfamiliar culture. Last year, my husband Joven went to Guatemala for a month of language school. He researched a little on the internet and found a list of possible schools. He selected Antigua as his destination because of its more than seventy language schools. Joven found instant relationships in a new land because of his one-on-one language teacher, the Guatemalan family of five he lived and ate with, and his fellow students. The cost was about $70 per week for school and $70 for the housing, which included three meals a day. Each evening when the father returned from his work, dinner was served. They sat around the table while he told stories in Spanish about the Guatemalan Civil War of the eighties. The students who combined language school with volunteer work also had many stories to share.
Learning a language has many unexpected benefits. It improves your memory, and recent new studies claim that it improves your math skills improve. The way language learning makes your mind work, it is said to lessen the likelihood of early onset Alzheimer’s. Today, Spanish is the world’s most spoken language, considered one of the easiest languages to learn. If you have this as a second language, you can speak to a huge portion of the American public, as well as speak to those in many other countries. It will certainly improve your job options, since many positions require one to converse with Spanish-speaking peoples.
8. We learn to live in the moment
This is my favorite benefit of world travel because life improves in so many ways when you learn to live in the moment. You will not understand it unless you begin to experience it yourself. It makes everything and anything possible. When we are fully present, fear is rarely felt because it is almost always associated with the future or the past. Quite naturally when we learn to live in the present moment, fear lessens and faith increases.
To paraphrase the Buddha, when you see, just see. When you hear, just hear. When you smell, just smell. When you touch, just touch. When you know, just know. This is all there is to living in the moment. It doesn’t sound difficult, and yet somehow it is for those of us in this modern age.
One day while in Malaysia, my family found ourselves with many plans for the day. As we walked toward our planned destination, we came upon a celebration. One of the large ethnic groups that settled in Malaysia are the Chinese and they were having a street celebration to ring in the Chinese New Year. Everywhere you looked, something was happening. Firecrackers popped, people roamed the streets, and two lions danced. The purpose of the loud noises and the lively dance is to drive away evil spirits and attract good luck and blessings for upcoming year. The dance is lively, colorful, and fun. It is performed in the street and there is much laughter from gathered crowds. As we joined in the fun, I realized that this was the only place in the world I wanted to be in that moment. Stopping and enjoying the moment is easy to do while traveling because the new sights and sounds are so intoxicating.
It is believed that the two lions were presented to the Emperor of China during the Tang Dynasty. They were so wild they had to be locked up, but a Buddhist Monk tamed and taught them to dance in order to entertain the Emperor. The word spread about the dancing lions, and because the “common people” could not see them they invented a lion dance of their own. using paper-mache replicas that were controlled by two men who acrobatically jumped and danced to animate the “lions.” It is a festive and wonderful performance and the laughter of the moment is quite contagious. Fortunately, we never did make it to our planned destination that day and it was one of the highlights of Malaysia.
How do we bring this consciousness into our daily lives? Thich Nhat Hanh, a present day Buddhist monk said, “We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive. Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy, and serenity. We need only to be awake, alive in the present moment.” Most of us have no idea how this attitude changes the quality of life. The feeling of aliveness in this very precious present, is fresh and effortless. Life simply lives itself. Great changes can be made in an instant because all the possibilities are in front of us. I do not believe, for an instance, that Rosa Parks went to the bus that day knowing what she was going to do. Did she just wake up that day to go to work and decide, at the critical moment, that she had had enough? Life can change on a dime. Great movements can begin in the twinkle of an eye when a person suddenly has access to great insight, just because she is fully present and in the moment.
9. We experience personal growth as we begin to ask new questions
After traveling outside of the United States, many of us return and begin to ask ourselves questions that perhaps we have never asked before: “What can I do to live on less? Am I really happy? Am I making a contribution to the world community? Am I involved in my local community? Do I have meaningful relationships in my life?”
I think what happens is this. When we visit developing nations and we really see what life is like in places where people have so little. We sense a contentment that surprises us. How can people with so little be so happy? This leads to new questions, and in time, our newly asked questions lead us to actions we would not take if we had not traveled. Travel opens doors to many possibilities because it opens our eyes!
William Lofquist, a leader in the prevention field believes, "Those who affect the most positive change are not those who provide a new set of answers, but those who allow for a new set of questions." What does this mean to me? That curiosity is a good thing. It opens our minds to a new view of the world. Unfortunately, this makes some people uncomfortable. They are quite content to know it all, that is, to hold the same opinions for thirty yeas without questioning them. My husband and I are not immune and often joke with one another about being “know–it-alls” when we won’t budge from some long-held opinion.
What is it about travel that causes us to ask new questions? It is being out of our everyday surroundings that gives us the time to reflect. It is like going on a long retreat and discovering who we are at a deeper level and in relationship to the world community. And when we ask questions and begin to experience personal growth, we also begin to experience synchronicity, surprise and wonder.
It seemed as though everywhere I traveled on our world tour, I met people who reflected for me answers to questions I was beginning to ask myself. Did I encounter people around the world who believed in “oneness” because it was a new discovery for me? Was it just a coincidence meeting a published author the day I knew writing this book was what I would do next? And what about the day I sat at a café and met a professor who told me that 80 percent of the world does not have a belief system that is not based on individualism but collectivism. That really opened my mind. What is this? Carl Yung first coined the term synchronicity. He described this as a “meaningful coincidence.” He did not believe that coincidences were merely random chance, but significant messages from the universe.
The world is an awesome place, full of amazing people living amazing day to day lives. Asking questions keeps us alive and growing. I used to believe, when I was young and green, that I would arrive one day, arrive at a place of having life all figured out. And then I saw how boring that would be. Even though life consists of valleys and peaks, joy and suffering, it was worth everything to learn and be surprised. I cannot say that I always like the process of personal growth but it keeps my wonder alive at the beauty of the lands of the earth and the people who live in them.
10. We are transformed into World Citizens!
When one thinks of oneself as a world citizen, the possibilities for living a life of fulfillment and creating internal change resulting in the great world change is limitless. Frankly, the world will never look the same again. Many personal transformations are occurring at this time so you will not be alone. Everywhere you travel you will meet people with similar views and values, values that say we should treat others kindly and hold a basic belief in the goodness of all people. The law of attraction suggests that you will receive what you put out. It was clear to me that as I embraced the world and its citizens, the world embraced me back!
I brought my new-found beliefs home with me and put them to work. One day, I brought some Vermont youth to the United Nations to observe the International Day of Peace. It was a way to help these students see the world, even though they couldn’t leave home. We heard U.N. appointed messengers of peace and we joined youth from around the world in a flag ceremony. As one youth said after his experience at the U.N., “You have to start with your own person to create inner peace and then say, ‘I want the world more peaceful.’
Of course, there isn’t just one solution to arrive at a peaceful Earth. We all have to do what we can, and that one day at the United Nations was my attempt to begin at home. Hopefully we will find not one way but many ways to make this a more peaceful world. When my family traveled we attempted to discover the ways that people around the world were working towards peace in their own lives. The idea of world peace is catching on, and people everywhere are trying to do their part. Whole communities are in the midst of recreating themselves as more and more members discover that they are not helpless. Perhaps they cannot operate on a world stage, but they can act locally. It is a growing movement and anyone can begin now to join in the transformation.
As people wake up to the present transformation, it can be noticed anywhere. I noticed it in India after visiting the the Taj Mahal. We arrived at sunrise, purchased our entry tickets and hired a fourth-generation tour guide. We took photos of the Taj from many views and angles and after hours of enchantment we went into the town of Taj Ganj. Desiring some alone time and a walk I left Joven and Lydia at a restaurant. The streets were narrow and jammed with people, vendors, stray dogs, and camels. I felt such peace in the daily activity that I almost ran into a man dressed in white flowing robes and his holy Koran tucked under his arm. In English, he questioned me, “Which country are you from, Mame?”
I ventured, (not quite sure how it would be taken with the war in Iraq) “USA.”
“Oh,” he looks me in the eye, “Great country.”
“India is a great country too,” I replied.
“Oh yes,” he said, picking up his stride. He stopped a few feet ahead of me, turned back and said, “Great world.” He smiled and continued walking the narrow street of Taj Ganj.
“Yes,” I yelled as he walked away, “Great world.” I will most likely never see this man again but I doubt I will ever forget our brief encounter as we recognized the greatness of our shared world. In that moment, he and I connected in a very small but meaningful way as world citizens. Let us focus on the great world we live in and let us create the world anew through travel.
Below you will find a world citizen meditation and you may read it aloud at this moment before you move to the next chapter. The next chapter will show you how easy it is to create a vacation that will not only enrich your life but the lives of those within the community you choose to visit. Now, take a moment and relax into the World Citizen Meditation.
World Citizen Meditation
Close your eyes and relax. Feel the beating of your heart. Relax into that peaceful place deep within yourself that connects to others. Feel yourself coming into harmony with the beating of your heart.
Now, feel the rhythm of the heartbeat of your city, or neighborhood or the block you live on. Feel yourself connected and at peace with the heart of the group.
Now, feel the connection of heartbeat of all the people in your state. Feel yourself at peace and listen to your heart beating in rhythm with the hearts of all people in your state. See this energy of connection and peace throughout your state.
Now, become aware of all the world citizens in the United States. Feel peace and harmony as you are unified with all the citizens in this country. See the energy of connection and peace become the energy of the United States and see it spreading throughout the world.
Now, become aware of all world citizens everywhere in the whole wide world. Become aware of your connection to all – all people and all communities working toward creating a new world. Feel your heartbeat in unison with all world citizens. See the energy of peace emanating from every part of the world and enveloping the world healing all discord and suffering.
Now, bring your awareness back to yourself, to where you are now in this moment, knowing that you are linked through the oneness we share with all of humanity, that part of self that joins your heart to the heart of the world.