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Why Travel?

Are we travelers or tourists?  To do service work or to not do service work?  Should we even be traveling to our destinations in the first place?  These are questions raised by our recent Journeys trips.

Merriam Webster defines “tourist” as one who makes a tour for pleasure or culture.  Is that not what we did?  Did we not go to the Galapagos to immerse ourselves in the culture of “island life”.  Did we not take pleasure in swimming and snorkeling on the beaches and spending our money in the shops designed for us to shop in?  We were tourists, yes, but what is so wrong about that?  We’ve heard about the impact of tourism, we know the damage that is being done to the environment, but we still go anyways.  So if we’re going to go anyways why not do it in a mindful way?  Oh, wait.  We did…  We educated ourselves on the flora, fauna, and culture of the Galapagos before we even stepped foot there.

 one that travels: such as
a : one that goes on a trip or journey
Above is the definition of “traveler”.  One that travels.  I don’t want to hear any more about the high horse that travelers sit on above tourists.  Whether or not you call yourself a tourist or a traveler is irrelevant.  Throw an adjective in there and make it matter.  Say you’re a “mindful tourist” or a “respectful traveler”.  That’s what matters.
So why travel?  Because we can, because we want to, because we should…Traveling is important because it lets you see a different part of the world other than the city you grew up in.  Why does it make you bad if you want to see the sights just for the hell of it?  Traveling is crucial to understanding the difference between cultures and people, and ultimately recognizing that we are all the same.  It opens doors for research and science; how can you study an organism that lives a continent away if you can’t even see it in person?  There are reasons for travel, and none of them are lesser than the other, despite what I think we’ve started to believe.

 

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Action/Reflection-Topic 3

On November 17th I attended Ignite The Flame: A Poetry Slam.  It was a competition to determine the 2017-2018 College Union Poetry Slam Invitational team. In three rounds, five poets poured their hearts and souls into the words they had written as they spoke them into words.  The way it worked was each of the five poets would perform one poem each round.  There were three rounds total.  During performances, if you heard something that really hit you, you’d snap applause.  At the end of each performance a panel of judges would score the poet and then “God” would announce the total scores.  If the audience or fellow poets didn’t agree with the scores they would yell “Listen to the poem!”  “Listen to the poem!” was yelled pretty much every time…  After round two,  Alysia Harris took the stage.  Harris is a founding member of the performance poetry collective and has been touring nationally and internationally for the last five years.  She has her MFA in poetry from NYU and completed her doctorate in linguistics at Yale University.  Alysia performed pieces that she said were “works in progress”, never even rehearsed.  But she could’ve fooled all of us in that room from the way she delivered her words.  After Harris, round three began.  Once the poets had finished their last poems the middle score, not the best or worst, was calculated.  “God” announced the winner and all was said and done.

All this is to say that every one of these poets is a leader.  They have taken charge of their thoughts, emotions, and experiences.  They wrote them down, put them to paper, and spoke them into words.  Whether they are reflecting or processing they are leaders in their own right.  William Cronon states that the liberally educated can “write clearly and persuasively and movingly” and that “they read and they understand”.  When Cronon lists his fourth point he stresses the importance of the writer’s ability to express what is in their mind and heart so as to move the person receiving their words.  Does the poet not do just that?  The connections between Cronon’s list and leadership qualities are clear and I have argued before that there is not only a correlation but a causation between the two.  Having said that, I believe that It is fair to say that because Cronon says that a liberally educated person should be able to read and write, the poets are therefore leaders.  

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