Travel: don’t do it
Don’t go; stay home
where your feet know the way along the street,
where you speak and your words are understood,
where you easily find Hostess Twinkies at the supermarket.
Don’t let your feet wander through remote villages without roads.
Don’t feel the panic when your words are not understood.
Don’t shop where you must pay in a different currency.
Don’t go; stay home
where you know what you are eating – it’s familiar home cooking,
where you can get a 32 oz Big Gulp at the corner 7-Eleven,
where you can turn on your TV to see Monday Night Football.
Don’t taste the way combinations of unknown spices make a tasty meal.
Don’t take your espresso at the counter of a bar that’s in a train station.
Don’t walk where everyone views the Premier League on large screens along the street.
Don’t go; stay home
where the combinations of colors and patterns are all predictable and calm,
where the buildings and monuments are familiar, their stories well known,
where life, past and present, is a well-known part of history.
Don’t feel a surprising jolt of energy and joy when you see yellow, paired with pink.
Don’t lose your mind in the mesmerizing mix of geometry everywhere.
Don’t see the homes of the ancients still standing after a thousand years.
Don’t go; stay home.
Home is where you think you know yourself.
Don’t stay home.
Go away and find yourself.
