As the summer continues along, I love seeing what people are doing as the travel or staycation. This is a good thing to like about social media - because even when we can't travel ourselves, we can learn from others, get ideas, dream, or reflect. Over the last two weeks, my husband and I felt fortunate to go on a really big trip for us, and on that journey we met some lovely people. One of them shared this quote with me:
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
Mark Twain
As our travels continued, I kept thinking about the truth of this, and in particular while in Amsterdam on a walking tour about the Anne Frank story. It is something to "know" the story - but something different to stand there. As we visited the Dutch Holocaust Memorial of Names, I was flooded with emotion. Over 102,000 names of those lost are recorded here, and that was just from Amsterdam. The numbers were staggering, and to walk by each brick knowing there was a whole life, a unique story, a real person represented there - it is an appropriately heartbreaking and somber place. From above, the design looks like the Hebrew letters of the phrase In Memory of. You can learn more about it and see it from above here. The designer, Daniel Libeskind, also designed the 9/11 Memorial in New York, which learning this really hit home on an additional level. It is a staggering reminder that the only reason we really know about Anne Frank is because she wrote a diary, which was found and saved by Miep Gies, one of the people who helped hide the Frank family - I highly recommend the show A Small Light to learn more.
It is too easy to just simply disconnect from other people, especially those who think or act differently than we do. But when we recognize others are also created by a loving God, each with their own story and hopes and dreams and challenges and fears, we hopefully become more loving ourselves. Travel helps us with this. As Twain notes, it soothes the rough edges of our own prejudices.
As you consider your life, I hope you'll consider your own prejudices, your own discomfort, your own narrow mindedness. We all experience these things as humans - but we can examine those stories and make decisions for a brighter world. We make choices every day in the way we interact, include, advocate, vote - and we would be wise to remember the words of Anne Frank herself - "What's done can't be undone, but at least you can keep it from happening again."
May your life include travels to fabulous far off places, but regardless of where your suitcases go, may your heart be centered on loving, learning, and living in the largest ways possible. May compassion be your travel guide.
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