Travel.

011405fri

 

Dear Heidi,

 

Your response to the article on travel was very welcome, and it was good to receive it.  The voluntary implication of the article was not that all travel had zero value.  Certainly, anything that contributes to, or is a part of, our spiritual growth is extremely valuable!

 

Travel can indeed make us interiorly richer.  Exposure to new places and new faces is a sign of a healthy, balanced mind-- as contrasted with the unhealthy, antisocial hermit!

 

Culturally and spiritually, we have been enriched by having lived in Guatemala.  That experience really imprinted on the mind the necessity of simplicity, as it is a third-world country, where poverty is great.  (We rented a two-room home for twenty dollars a month.:)  It altered the philosophy of materialism, and committed us to a life of nongreed.  We would not at all be the same people without having had that experience.

 

Our very kind friend Frank has provided many trips to Dublin which have also enormously enriched our life-perspective.

 

These two facts are used to illustrate the fact that we do indeed share your perspective that travel can be good.  The only purpose of the article was to point out that moving your tiny body around this "nanosphere" of a planet does not, in itself, increase your value as a total human being.  We are no "more important" or "better" than the person who has never moved her front gate!

 

Love,

 

Shi