TOWARD A NEW ENLIGHTENMENT THROUGH TRAVEL
by Rick Steves, produces TV travel shows and writes travel guides

Thomas Jefferson said, "Travel makes you wiser but less happy." "Less happy" is a good thing. It's the growing pains of a broadening perspective. After viewing our culture from a coffeehouse in Vienna or a village in Tuscany, I've found truths that didn't match those I always assumed were "self-evident" and "God-given."

And flying home gives me a healthy dose of culture shock in reverse. You know how I love Europe. But I haven't told you about my most prized souvenir--a new way of thinking. The "land of the free" has a powerful religion--materialism. Its sophisticated priesthood (business, media, military, and political leaders) worships unsustainable growth. Contentment and simplicity are sins. Mellow is yellow. And evil is anything steering you away from being a good producer/consumer. Yes, greater wealth would be wonderful. But for who? The gap between rich and poor -- both within our society and among humankind in general -- is growing. Regulatory, tax, and spending policies in the USA since 1982 have caused the greatest trickle up of wealth in our nation's history.

And globally, the richest 386 people now own as much as the poorest 40% of humanity put together. Designer fortifications protect the wealthy in much of the world. In the USA, two kinds of communities are the rage: "gated communities" and prisons. The victims are the politically meek--those who don't or can't vote: the young, the poor, the environment, and the future. More and more Americans have lost hope. And when "freedom" grows at hope's expense, your children will ponder their blessings behind deadbolts. Whoa! What happened to me? The young Republican traveled. I saw countries less wealthy than ours (but with bigger governments) where everyone had a home, enough food, and health care. And, like the early astronauts, I saw a planet with no boundaries -- a single, tender organism painted with the faces of six billion equally precious people.

I unpack my rucksack marveling how politically active American Christians can believe we're all children of God while fighting aid for the hungry and homeless. A new enlightenment is needed. Just as the French "Enlightenment" led into the modern age of science and democracy, this new Enlightenment will teach us the necessity of sustainable affluence, peaceful coexistence with other economic models, controlling nature by obeying her, and measuring prosperity by something more human than material consumption. I hope your travels will give you a fun and relaxing vacation or adventure. I also hope they'll make you an active patriot of our planet and a voice for people in our country who will never see their names on a plane ticket.

Source: Big World, Issue 5, Winter 1996.