Posted 8:49 pm Sunday, January 15, 2012
Maybe a wise man didn’t say it
It's the time when everyone posts lists for making a better self on Twitter and Facebook. I usually skip them, but one caught my attention.
It was a list of "20 Ways to Get Good Karma." It's purported to be a list written by the Dalai Lama, but it's been debunked by Snopes.com as a email chain letter.
And as my friend James put it, "I've read some of his books. There's no way he writes anything in a list unless it takes 40 chapters to explain."
Yet one piece of advice is good for travelers, no matter who wrote it: Once a year, go someplace you've never been.
It's a goal I've achieved for the past eight years.
In 2004, I visited and fell in love with Lawrence, Kan. -- I choose to transfer to The University of Kansas partly because I loved the city so much. The King of Rock and Roll drew me to Graceland and Memphis, Tenn., by way of St. Louis in 2005. I visited Omaha, Neb., in 2006.
In 2007, I moved to Los Angeles. I drove there, so I had plenty of places that I'd never seen before -- mountains, oceans, the Grand Canyon, Disneyland. In 2008, I moved to Tyler, and that was my first real time in Texas.
Houston and Galveston came with 2009. And 2010 took me to Philadelphia and Charleston, N.C. Last year Nashville, Tenn., was my big destination.
Whether it's a town 30 minutes away or 3,000 miles away, exploring new environs expands our horizons.
Where will I go this year? I hope its New Orleans. But I would be happy with any new destination.
Where will you go? Make a list of five places you want to see in the next five years and strive to see them. Take it a step further by clipping color photos from newspapers and magazines and pasting them to a travel wish board.
Happy travels.
