"Thoughtful Traveling" ~ July 13 (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Channel: Stan McGahey
Date: 2017-07-26

Greetings Thoughtful Travelers!  Welcome to today’s thought for July 13th!

It’s by Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American poet, lecturer, essayist, and leader of the transcendentalist movement.  He lived from 1803 to 1882.

“I am not much an advocate for traveling, and I observe that men run away to other countries because they are not good in their own, and run back to their own because they pass for nothing in new places. For the most part, only the light characters travel. Who are you that have no task to keep you at home?”

So what are your thoughts on today’s quote? Here’s mine.

“Ralph, Ralph, Ralph!  Lighten up please.  Life is more than tilling the field, reading the “Good Book”, and haranguing others who want to wring some enjoyment out of life.  Emerson went to Europe shortly after his first wife died.  Apparently, he never got over the notion that every other foreigner he met was running from something or had some other nefarious motive for escaping hearth and home to visit distant lands.  Why he couldn’t see the personal benefits of travel is a mystery, given his prowess as a deep thinker.  Note to Ralph: many people travel to go towards something, not away from something.”

Now…here’s the list of all the sources quoted in July. I hope you’ll stop by each day to enjoy all the interesting and insightful things they have to say.  Thanks, and see you tomorrow!