AROUND THE WORLD IN 23 YEARS~BODY & SOUL

My body traveled, my soul took me there.

It's difficult to separate body and soul but C.S. Lewis does a pretty good job of it.

What we think, what we decide, what we feel, that's soul; what we do is body.

My travels to exotic places didn't change my body, but my soul reinvented itself over and over changing who I was and how I perceived the world.

I've read about places and cultures but never understood them until I went there, lived with the people, and experienced their dreams and fears, so different from my own.

Travel softens the edges of your humanity, you become more empathetic as you realize there is more than one way to live. It's not always your way or the highway it's your way and their way, parallel universes spinning in the same direction by differing means.

I'm often asked what was my favorite country during my travels, that's the wrong question. The question should be why did I drop a life of comfort and convenience for one of adventure and discovery? That's like asking someone why they climbed Mount Everest, putting themselves in harm's way for no logical reason.

The answer is logic has nothing to do with it, it's metaphysical:

"Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the fundamental nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, between substance and attribute, and between potentiality and actuality."

I'm not a philosopher, in spite of my liberal education. I'm a realist that discovered the magic carpet, a conveyance to places different from my place, to cultures different from my culture, and an understanding that there is more than one way to live my life.

Stay with me, as I continue my journey.

Comments

CHAOS REVISITED

" a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order." Isn't four years of this enough, seriously? The constant media drumbeat, TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP, dominating the headlines, the news shows, and our conversation. This did not happen by accident, this was a calculated strategy by a certified narcissist. "Narcissism: a mental condition in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others." The Trump supporters say that "this is just Trump being Trump" that, my friends, is precisely the problem. Now that he's lost the election and his sycophants in Congress have replaced their horns with silence, if not acceptance, wouldn't you think the man would suck it up, acknowledge the inevitable, exhibit a modicum of humility and devise an exit strategy that would highlight his accomplishments not feed his addi...

A NEW NORMAL, OR IS IT?

The more things change, the more they stay the same, “plus ça change , plus c'est la même chose “ – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849 COVID-19 is raging across the country, case counts are setting new records day after day with deaths a lagging indicator. President-Elect Joe Biden is on course to put the nation's health #1 on his agenda with the appointment of a new commission to advise him on mitigation and containment strategy. Joe knows he's not a medical expert, much less a trained scientist, COVID is not a political issue it's a national health issue, it's an economic issue, it's a jobs issue. An election will not control COVID-19, science and leadership will. We'll have a new administration but the same problem, what's needed is public acceptance of a strategy driven by science and common sense. "Ah, is it just me or does anybody see The new improved tomorrow isn't what it used to be Yesterday keeps comin' 'round, it's just...

WAKE UP AMERICA

Wake up to the crushing wave of new infections, hospitalizations, and deaths raging across America with abandon. Be honest, we, none of us, are taking this 2nd and more deadly wave of COVID-19 as seriously as we did in March. It was then that we scrambled for home delivery services, that we self-quarantined, that we stopped church, sports, concerts, movies, bars, restaurants, and in-store shopping. The pandemic slowed and almost stopped in places like NY, NJ, and CT. We stopped seeing our Doctor, delayed elective surgery, testing, and hospital visits. We discovered the ease and efficiency of online shopping and Zoom for family facetime. In a word, we changed our lives to preserve our physical health at the expense of our financial health. Now, what, we're entering the critical winter season when flu hits its peak, the forecast for new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are staggering and we're barely emerging from an economic recession if not a depression. The question rema...

Search This Blog