Travel: The Places I Love
There is something about being somewhere else. To a place, unlike Cheers, where everyone knows your name, to a land where no one knows you. Freedom in anonymity. Travel also provides perspective. Seeing pristine places creates a critical eye at home, as does living on the banks of one of the world's greatest rivers, which is highly polluted.
It is traveling to a country where being gay or a woman means you are not equal and appreciating how lucky it is to live in a country like the USA.
It is experiencing food, language, culture, art, music, and adventure. Travel frames a person as exactly where they should be: tiny, anonymous, and curious. Here are some of my favorite trips.
Africa:Okavango Delta
As a boy who was obsessed with Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, National Geographic, Born Free, and Jane Goodall, Africa was a place I had always wanted to see. I wanted to see it as they lived it: wild, in tents, exposed.
I spent night after night in a two-person tent, listening to lions growl and hippos slog through their evening paths to forage.
My luggage was lost in Maun, so all I had was my camera, man bag, and a few tee shirts and shorts tucked away in my carry-on bag. I bought a sarong, which I used as a head scarf, bottoms when I had to clean my shorts, and loungewear in front of the campfire.
I felt free, never scared, and was proud when I jumped in the delta and didn't fear the 12-foot crock basking in the sun 25 yards away. The guide, Frog, assured us it was too cold for them to hunt.