Fern and I have set out to do something that to some may seem like a dream come true and to others may seem like a nightmare. In a simplified way our goal is to travel around the world – to make a grand loop, witnessing as much as we can of the earth itself and the dizzying array of life on it. Of course, walking through beautiful landscapes and looking at exotic insects is only a part of this and things get so much more complicated when it comes to human beings.
At our cores, people are almost exactly the same as each other and yet we manifest our humanity in such a bewildering variety of ways. To see how people live in other parts of the world expands how we define and comprehend ourselves, as well as the culture from which we come. For the time being it has become a way of life for us to explore the differences and similarities between people and societies, all the while considering how these things relate to our own lives and happiness. It is painfully clear that many aspects of life in the USA are not conducive to happiness for many people. We need a broader view. By feeling the pulses of so many places we hope to enrich ourselves and share this enrichment with others. And it doesn’t hurt to throw in a little adventure and some great food!
I know this is something many people think about doing. The truth is that it would be extremely difficult or even impossible for most people to uproot themselves like this. Responsibilities. Children. Careers. Home ownership. Health issues. That is one of the main reasons I keep this blog – to provide a unique window into other parts of the world for people who don’t have the opportunity to see it for themselves. We all need a glimpse into the lives of people who are different from us, to appreciate and value those differences as much as possible.
We’ve both overcome many challenges to be where we are now. If you don’t know both of us personally, feel free to check out the About Us page. Traveling like this is not always easy, glamorous, or even fun, but we have our moments. We have to maintain a fairly slim budget for something like this to be possible. As it is we can only hope to make it to a good assortment of countries where traveling is very inexpensive. That rules out a lot of places. Many of the more developed countries are simply too expensive and many less developed countries present a variety of dangers and added travel costs due to a lack of infrastructure.
A few people have expressed an interest in helping us out financially – to extend our budget so that we can make it to more places. There are certainly many people in the world who have a more immediate and legitimate need for monetary help but if a person feels inspired by what we’re doing or enjoys the blog posts or just wants to support us and see us make it farther, we won’t say no their assistance. I’ve set up a simple process to contribute through Paypal.
Here’s the link:
Thanks for your support.
Jim and Fern