"Charitable Views of Man"

"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

I'm going to India this summer.

It still takes my breath away just a little bit when I think about it.

I've never really been a "Bucket List" kind of person.  But if I was, India would have been on that list.  At my age I never really expected it would happen, but thanks to the Center for International Understanding (directors of the trip) and the Triangle High Five group (my personal sponsor for the trip), I will indeed be in India from July 5th through the 21st this coming summer.

Why?  

That's the question I get asked the most when people hear that I am going.  And I almost always think about the above quote by Mark Twain.  And then I think about the world around us today - a political process in stalemate; people more polarized than ever on issues; countries and people unable to find peace.  Those thoughts make me ask...

Why?

I think some (maybe many) of us need to get out more.  We need to do some of that "walking a mile in your neighbors shoes" stuff that sounds so nice on the inspirational posters, bumper stickers, and coffee mugs.  Most of all we desperately need to get to know people other than the core group we have spent most of our lives with, and with whom we tend to surround ourselves.

Why?

Because its hard to hate someone you've taken the time to get to know.  It's hard to intentionally hurt someone you've shared a meal with, or whose kids you have played with.  We have an incredible capacity to love, cherish, protect, and forgive those we know.  And an equally great capacity to be thoughtless to those we don't.

India is not the United States.  Over a billion people crammed into a country a third the size of ours.  Great wealth and abject poverty.  A history that is counted in millennium rather than centuries.  A land that has experienced foreign rule, and now finds itself free yet surrounded by dangerous neighbors.

Man.  Think of all there is to learn there...

I think Twain was right when he suggested that charitable views of man are improved by getting out and being among men.  We find compassion and true understanding when our knowledge of other people becomes personal.  We gain the ability to negotiate and compromise when we actually care about the other person.

And maybe, just maybe, that can make the world a better place for everyone.

So stay tuned.  I welcome you to join me on this adventure.  I will share my trip with all who choose to follow along in this blog, sharing stories and pictures of our group getting to know India and its people.

More to come...

Namaste...