Passport

This afternoon, for some reason, I pulled out my Passport and looked through it.  A "world" traveler I am not... I have been in three other Countries besides the US, two of which are documented in my Passport.  One was traveled to, way before a Passport or Passport Card was necessary.  Which begs another question... which I will leave for later...

However, the stamps on those pages, mean a lot to me!  I can not ever fully explain, express, or even begin to share with anyone, the memories of my international travels.  Yet a simple stamp, makes me recall the trip, and then everything that happened, I experienced, and saw while I was there.

I have taken the opportunity to travel to other Countries.  In a lot of ways, it has been very sobering.  From seeing and experiencing utter destitution and poverty, to seeing vibrancy and success.  Which made me wonder today, why?  Why is there so much disparity, yet why so much similarity?

Throughout my journey, in both life and career, I have learned a lot.  One of the most important lessons so far... as bad as I think things are, there are a lot of worse things!  And likewise, as good as I think things are, there are a lot of better things!  Perhaps it is a realization of a world view.  I will continue to do what I do.  I will someday travel internationally again.  It's not about bringing what I have, to others... it's about bringing others, to what I have.

That sounds political, perhaps.  Yet it is more fundamental than that!  It is also not religious either.

A quote comes to mind, attributed once to Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie (1837-1919) in her novel, Mrs. Dymond (1885).  A few other sources attribute it to a Chinese Proverb.  Not, however, found in the Christian Bible...  Regardless of who said it first, hundreds or even thousands of years old... there is a moral "truth" in it (paraphrased):

"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime."


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