I used to tell my children - though they would likely deny it - that the world will change for the better only when inter-racial marriage becomes commonplace and, leaving the comforts of home, we travel the world freely and in a mindful way.
I’ve been reflecting on those astronauts who reflected on their world from afar,
and returned home with an image,
that had forever changed their lives.
What must it have been like for them to experience the reality that all the boundaries and borders are mere constructs?
What does that epiphany do to a mind that for so many years had been trained to label, catalogue, and categorize - much in the way we do when looking at “the other” from a distance?
A friend wrote a few days ago:
I had plans to go to Egypt on a Viking cruise but cancelled due to concern for safety and the ongoing war. From your experience, it seems like it’s not a worry.
There are precautions to be taken for sure - bandaids, ibuprofen, imodium, extra socks.
But in the end, the change comes from opening up, giving into, surrender,
even at the risk of making a fool of oneself.
Then in Galicia,
it was a breath of warmth
from a kitchen door,
palatial with light
and a daughter's smile;
the family behind,
asking you in,
as if to say,
of all shelter, traveller,
you'll ever find on the road,
even with those you know,
the stranger's love is best of all.
David Whyte (Pilgrim)
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