I put this in the US Forum by mistake! Before anyone attacks, I am not a huge Rick Steves fan. I did however order a DVD and get e-mails from the website. This months letter from "Steve" was titled "Rick Steves: Fulfilling your travel dreams..." I found that this paragraph summed up very well the reasons why I love to travel:

"I find fulfillment through travel. Flying halfway around the globe to better understand another culture is the people-loving equivalent of a nature-lover hugging a tree. On the road, life is vivid. (After a three-week trip, I can recall every meal.) When I'm in Europe, I bolt out of bed, breathe deep, live a month in every day, make more friends, and fly home energized...fulfilled."

Until I became a fodors, addict I never heard about Rick Steves,as a matter of fact, I never read his books either, however, I do share his passion and feel the same way he does about travelling...

In a small book called <i>The Art of Travel&lt;/&gt; by Alain de Botton, the author says few activities reveal as much about our quest in searching for happiness as do our travels. They express an understanding of what life might be about, outside of the constraints of work and the struggle for survival but are rarely considered to present philosophical problems, i.e., issues requiring thought beyond the practical. We are inundated with advice of where to travel to, but we hear little of why and how we should go. The art of travel seems naturally to sustain a number of questions neither so simple nor so trivial, and whose study might in modest ways contribute to an understanding of what the Greek philosophers beautifully termed as &quot;human flourishing.&quot;

Human flourishing seems to me to sum up my chief reason for a love of travel.</i>

Turning off italics. Sorry.

carolyn, can you please explain &quot;human flourishing&quot; again - in terms us folks near Sweetwater Springs, Georgia will understand. I thought I loved travel since it was fun and interesting and made me appreciate and understand things better. After reading what you wrote, I'm very confused.

Degas, &quot;Human Flourishing&quot; is a concept that goes back to Aristotle (so we're getting into some heady stuff for this board today, huh?) Here are a few words on it from Dr. Edward W. Younkins, a professor at Wheeling Jesuit University:

&quot;Personal flourishing (also known as human flourishing, self-actualization, moral well-being, etc.) involves the rational use of one's individual human potentialities including talents, abilities, and virtues in the pursuit of his freely and rationally chosen values and goals. An action is considered to be proper if it leads to the flourishing of the person performing the action. Personal flourishing is, at the same time, a moral accomplishment and a fulfillment of human capacities, and it is one through being the other. Self-actualization is moral growth, and vice-versa.&quot;

Carolyn's take on travel seems much like my own, but I know that it is different for different people.

Well, Degas, aren't you glad that got cleared up?
In other words, &quot;if it feels good and it's good for you, do it.&quot;

But what if it's fattening?

marilyn, if it's fattening, I'm all for it.

So let's get this straight - if I am good at growing okra, enjoy growing okra and actually grow lots of good okra, I'm fulfilled and flourished to the point of self-actualization?

Marilyn, if you're not fat yet, you're just not going to get fat. (And you're not. LOL!)

Yes, Degas! You've GOT it! YOU are a person who really CAN take okra to that level!

Forget self-actualization, Degas. I'd say you're the Okra King!

Flyboy, you are too kind, but do I know you? )

&quot;Unusual travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.&quot;

Vonnegut

Hi
Vonnegut?, Jesuits?, Rick Steves? All in the same posting? Okra? this is certainly getting too heady for me. I'd like to add my 2 cents. I love to travel because i enjoy going to places I've never been. Seeing how people live, hanging out in cafes. Everytime I go some where I enjoy it for the differences in my life and the sameness in us all, as well as the food and scenary.

Flyboy, thank you for bailing me out; and Marilyn, you won't get fat if you stick to okra.

I like okra, but I like chocolate more.

So, combining Alain de Botton, who explained the allure of travel for its contributing to human flourishing, and Edward W. Younkins, who defined human flourishing, we have the following:

[We choose to travel because this] art.. contributes to an understanding of...[human flourishing which is]...the rational use of one's....talents...in the pursuit of one's rational...choices....

Or in short, according to these two, we choose to travel because we want to understand why we chose it. Hmmmn.

Hmmn.

Degas, is it true that if you don't flourish a gumbo with okra, it ain't gumbo?

all this gumbo mumbo is ok with okra. and having read all mentioned books, let us just say: travel is good for the mind, the body and human relations.