Consider this quote by Hilaire Belloc: “We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”

At first I saved this quote because I liked the concept of travel being fulfilling. Then I wondered, “And who is Hilaire Belloc?” According to Wikipedia:

“Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (27 July 1870 – 16 July 1953) was a French-born writer and historian who became a naturalised British subject in 1902. He was one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. He is most notable for his Roman Catholic faith, which had an impact on most all of his writing.”

As I read more about Belloc, I learned that his meaning of “fulfillment” differs from mine. If something is fulfilling, it is both life affirming AND life changing. This led me to looking up the definition of and synonyms for fullfilled.

Here are some synonyms from dictionary.com: accomplished, achieved, actualized, attained, brought about, brought to a close, carried out, compassed, concluded, consummated, crowned, delighted, dispatched, effected, effectuated, executed, finished, gratified, made good, matured, obtained, perfected, performed, pleased, put into effect, reached, realized, satisfied.

Okay, are you still with me? Next thought that entered my head was that Belloc supported a type of capitalism popular in the Middle Ages and wanted to return to that. Is returning to the past fulfilling (using my definition of “life changing)? Next thought: Am I able to like a quote but not the quoter? Next thought: I don’t think I like this quote after. It sounds elitist, snobbish. Why can’t one travel for both distraction and fulfillment?

Oh my God, I’ve had way too much coffee this morning!

The other day I was driving down the street behind a vehicle bearing the sign “Mercedes Benz Customer Transportation”. Although the concept is not unique, it’s nice to see that a luxury car company still provides service for its customers…and yet….why use a Honda as the vehicle of choice??? Hmmmm, perhaps Mercedes is making a statement about value????

“I should brush up on my Spanish”… leads to the many times in my life I think, “Maybe I’d like to learn to…” or I’m going to study…” or “I’m going to explore…” Just insert one of the following words to complete the sentence: Spanish, French, Chinese, Hebrew, Swahili, the Bible, ancient history, dye wool, bead, Yoga, sewing, tailoring, how to cook Indian food, make silver jewelry, read classic novels. I’m not sure when or if I’ll explore any of the above topics, but it is fun to know that life holds so much interest!

Quick update: we left Ushuaia, Argentina on Thursday evening aboard the National Geographic Explorer and we are headed towards the Antarctic peninsula. We crossed the Drake Passage with their usual rough seas (thank goodness we brought seasickness patches and never got sick!). In the wee hours of this morning we crossed the Antarctic Convergence and are officially in the Antarctic Circle. Weather is brisk, skies are spitting snow, and there is the ever present Antarctic wind. As we approach Antarctica the days are quite long and nights are quite short. For example, the sun rose today at 3:00 AM and will not set until 12:08 AM tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll reach Marguerite Bay and take our first Zodiac ride to shore! FACTOID FOR TODAY: Antarctica is the windiest of the seven continents.

Sometimes I anticipate events with joy and excitement and sometimes with dread. This time, attending the Bar Mitzvah of a dear friend’s grandson, I anticipated with the attitude of, “I’m doing this for my friend because I love and respect her.” I didn’t dread it and I didn’t look forward to it—other than looking forward to supporting my friend. Do you ever have those times, where your reason for participating is not a direct line to the event but rather a tangential connection?

What is so cool about these types of events is that often they soar far above my expectations and this weekend in Atlanta surpassed all projections! We were hosted at wonderful parties from beginning to end. Okay, I knew about the parties in advance. What I didn’t expect was how much fun I was going to have, how many wonderful people I would meet, the camaraderie I would share!

The absolute highlight of this weekend was the actual Bar Mitzvah ceremony. It was held at Atlanta’s oldest congregation, “The Temple,” founded in the 1860’s in the magnificent sanctuary, built in 1930. Take a pinch of being in a very aristocratic, elegant building, throw in melodious songs led by an outstanding Cantor, bunches of people gathered in prayer, and the secret ingredient, the poised and yet relaxed countenance of Brendan, the Bar Mitzvah celebrant, as he led the Shabbat service. Blend these together and create one of the most meaningful, memorable and spiritual events of my recent past. Thank you Atlanta; thank you Alan and Michelle; thank you, Judi, dearest friend; thank you, Brendan, for this amazing occasion; and, thank you, God, for the gift of spirituality, for touching me when I least expect it, and for my personal UPS!

Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind.  ~Seneca

To get away from one’s working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one’s self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.  ~Charles Horton Cooley

The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway.  ~Henry Boye

…by the race for the White House. I’ve always followed Presidential politics, but never as avidly as I have during this election. Since 9/11 our government has used fear as the means to justify attacking other countries, to spy on unsuspecting US citizens, to ignore our Constitution. Need a fact to substantiate a claim? No problem! We’ll create one! Feeling anxious? We’re from the government and we’re here to help—we’ll loosen the regulations on lending so you can get your fix of MORE.

As we’ve become overwhelmed by the “macro” complexities of our world, we’ve sought refuge in the “micro”–Red v. Blue, Black v. White, Straight v. Gay, Pro-Choice v. Pro-Life, Neo-Con v. Leftist. We’ve morphed into a nation of factions and the only thing United is each side’s ardent belief that they hold THE ANSWER. 

We’ve witnessed our country’s slide from respected to scorned: we can’t even help ourselves (Hurricane Katrina); we’ve proved that Free Market strategies have fostered greed and, more recently, severe economic instability; we have abandoned our values (Gitmo, Abu Graib, and Torture).

We are not victims! We’ve participated in most of the disasters of the past 8 years. We’ve allowed ourselves to become distracted by fear, greed, and selfishness. Today we have a chance to set a different course. Please, please, please vote! Look at the issues and the candidates. Try to sort out reality from imagery (there you go again,wink, wink!) and let your voice be heard.   http://www.voteforchange.com/

Click on the link below to be sure you are registered to vote. This site provides everything you need to know about registering, where to vote, early voting, and absentee ballots. Voting in the U.S. is a right and a privilege! Exercise your right and be part of this process!

www.VoteForChange.com

I’ll let the famous people’s quotes answer the question:

A traveler without observation is a bird without wings.” — Moslih Eddin Saadi

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” — Martin Buber

“A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent (which I cannot deny myself to be without being impious) will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.” — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

“Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled.” — Mohammed

“Traveling tends to magnify all human emotions.” — Peter Hoeg

“The journey is my home.” — Muriel Rukeyser

“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” —Freya Stark

“Our happiest moments as tourists always seem to come when we stumble upon one thing while in pursuit of something else.” — Lawrence Block

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by.” — Robert Frost

“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” — Pat Conroy

“I should like to spend the whole of my in life traveling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home.” — William Hazlitt

“Hitler didn’t travel. Stalin didn’t travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn’t want to have their orthodoxy challenged.” — Howard Gardner

In 1970 I taught first grade at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Illinois. At that time we taught a type of reading called ITA, Initial Teaching Alphabet. With a 1-to-1 sound/symbol relationship, a child can write any word that they can sound out. Granted, the words may look like gibberish; however, they are the actual phonetic equivalents of each spoken word. Many students who learned to read via ITA had atrocious spelling when they converted to the normal English language; but, what amazing

creativity flowed from children unrestricted by our cumbersome grammar and spelling. Who knows—maybe Spellcheck was invented by someone who learned to read using the Initial Teaching Alphabet!

38 years ago I asked my students to write out something they recited daily, the “Pledge of Allegiance.” Below is one I’ve saved all these years, and, since our Presidential campaign is in full swing, I offer it to you today (in recognizable spelling):

“I pledge a legions to the flag of the United snakes of America, and to the Republicans for which it stands, one nation under God, invisible, with Liv or Lee and just us for all.”

 I hope the writer of the above realizes that today we have more than Republicans (the school was located in an upper class neighborhood. More important, I hope we all realize that we are NOT Republicans, Democrats, Green Party, Libertarians, Progressives, Black, White, Brown, Green, Purple, male, female, undecided, Catholic, Christian, Evangelical, Jewish, Moslem, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, agnostic, or atheist—we are Americans and we MUST work together to renew our faith in our country, its leadership, and to refocus our amazing potential for good.

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisble, with liberty and justice for all.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

A couple of posts ago, I invited you to play a game, “Cout the SUVs and Minivans”. On Monday I forgot to count; yesterday, on my way to work I counted 19 vehicles and 18 of them had only 1 passenger. Today, returning from lunch, I began counting again and discovered 2 out of 11 vehicles had more than one passenger.

Some of the reasons I’ve heard to justify driving big gas guzzlers are:  1) I have to drive my kids to school; 2) I haul things; 3) It snows a lot and I feel more secure with a big 4-wheel drive vehicle; 4) If it works for the military, it works for me (Hello! Have you noticed their Hummers are old, decrepit, and break down regularly???); 5) I don’t want to be hurt in a car crash.

I confess I owned a “I have to take my son to school-mobile” 10 years ago. I even knew back then that the public reason made no sense—I had one child to transport! Also, unless my child was the progeny of the Jolly Green Giant or King Kong, he could probably fit in most regular sized cars. Last, I must have had a really good reason to trade in my Saab convertible for a Toyota 4-Runner, right?

So, here are some truths behind the given reasons for owning a gas guzzler: 1) I want to fit in (i.e. “keep up with the Jones” syndrome—guilty as charged!); 2) I am independently wealthy and have no care about the cost of fuel; 3) I will be dead before the damage to our environment is felt (i.e. the “I am selfish” syndrome); 4) I am a multiple spouse in a pluralistic community and have to schlep 20 kids at a time.