Beware of travel!

Grant Montgomery Travelogue: Beware: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”

With his typical tongue-in-cheek humor, Mark Twain once warned that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.”

In another instance, I believe he also said something to the effect that “There’s nothing wrong with schooling. ….Just don’t let it get in the way of your education!”

Building on these two concepts, in my opinion travel – especially in emerging nations — is indeed a wonderful education, a unique opportunity to experience firsthand different countries, cultures and citizens of our amazing and multi-faceted world.

Cambodia snack spider — Enjoying local Cambodian delicacy — tarantula! Rather like a cross between chicken and cod.

Enjoying the local foods of the various cultures I encounter is another great perk of the experience, various dishes offering an expression of identity. (eg. During the bloody and brutal times under the Khmer Rouge “Killing Fields” rule when food was in short supply, out of desperation, starving Cambodians ate whatever they could scrounge, including tarantulas!)

Enjoying a tasty South Indian dish served on a banana leaf platter.

To expand further on this topic of travel being fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness: Steven Pinker, in his monumental book ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature’, wrote, “Biology, anthropology, and archaeology all point in the same direction: humans may be nice to their friends, but we can be cold blooded when it comes to outsiders.“

Rutger Bregman, writing in “Human Kind” concurs: “People are social animals, but we have a fatal flaw: we feel more affinity for those who are most like us …who share the same language or appearance or backgrounds.”

Bergman recommends that we chose the path of compassion. And when we do, we “realize how little separates you from that stranger. Compassion takes you beyond yourself, until those near and dear are no more or less significant than the rest of the world.”

P.S. – And on that thought, I will end with expressing the hope you have enjoyed these informal logs from some of my travels, and have gained in some way.