A Source of Inspiration

One of the things I have discovered about myself as a writer is that there are a certain experiences or triggers that inspire me to write immediately. No matter where I'm at or what I'm doing I have to stop and jot down at least a few notes so hopefully I can expound on the idea sooner than later. Sometimes, like now, if I happen to already be sitting at a desk with my laptop at the ready, then I can get it all down without delay.

What is today's source of inspiration? I received an email this morning from ricksteves.com containing a link to an article that was just published in The New York Times Magazine. Written by Sam Anderson, the article is an 8,000 word profile of the man behind the very successful Rick Steves' Europe empire and, as someone who has ascribed to the "back door" way of travel since discovering Steves' guidebooks more than 20 years ago, I immediately clicked the link and read the story.

It is an excellent piece of journalism that reveals some interesting personal details about someone whom I already know a lot about. You see, even though I have never met him personally, I have not only read every book that Rick Steves has ever published, but I have used his guidebooks to research and plan every trip I've ever taken to Europe as an adult, going all the way back to 1998. If you use the search field on the upper right side of this blog and type in "Rick Steves" you will find dozens of posts where I have referenced his guidebooks, website, travel accessories, free audio guides, etc. which have all been invaluable during my travels.

The magazine article refers to Steves' hard-core fans as "Rickniks." I have never thought of myself this way; I'm just someone who has the same ideas about travel as Steves does. An interesting fact:  In the early 2000's, while I was a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines and was based in New York City, I was considering a move to the Pacific Northwest. I spent a couple of weeks looking at real estate in Portland, Ore.; Seattle, Wash.; and many of the smaller cities in that region. Since I was in the area, I also went to Rick Steves' headquarters in Edmonds, Wash. out of curiosity but also to submit my resume, in person, for a job as a tour guide. Nothing ever came of it, but it was fun to entertain the thought of being part of his team and another way to make a living doing something I love.

It's not just Rick Steves' guidebooks that inspired and informed some of my first travels outside of the United States; it's his travel philosophy. That's what this magazine article articulates so well; it truly captures the man's unquenchable desire to travel and to encourage people, particularly those born in the U.S., to expand their cultural horizons. After one long paragraph describing how Steves is "absolutely American," Anderson writes this:

And yet: Rick Steves desperately wants you to leave America. The tiniest exposure to the outside world, he believes, will change your entire life. Travel, Steves likes to say, “wallops your ethnocentricity” and “carbonates your experience” and “rearranges your cultural furniture.” Like sealed windows on a hot day, a nation’s borders can be stultifying. Steves wants to crack them open, to let humanity’s breezes circulate. The more rootedly American you are, the more Rick Steves wants this for you. If you have never had a passport, if you are afraid of the world, if your family would prefer to vacation exclusively at Walt Disney World, if you worry that foreigners are rude and predatory and prone to violence or at least that their food will give you diarrhea, then Steves wants you — especially you — to go to Europe. Then he wants you to go beyond. (For a majority of his audience, Steves says, “Europe is the wading pool for world exploration.”)

This is exactly what I have tried to convey to anyone who will listen to me over the past 20+ years; that traveling to another country where everything is foreign to you: language, food, religion, social customs, may be intimidating or even scary for some, but it is the best way to expand your knowledge and understanding of the world and its' peoples, and to maybe be a little less inclined to think that the United States, as great as it is, is superior to everywhere (and everyone) else on this planet.

Travel, to Steves, is not some frivolous luxury — it is an engine for improving humankind, for connecting people and removing their prejudices, for knocking distant cultures together to make unlikely sparks of joy and insight.

As of today, I have traveled to 83 of the 195 countries, 61 dependencies, and six disputed territories in the world. I personally prefer to think of England, Ireland, and Scotland as three separate countries given their distinct differences and because I have spent the equivalent of several months traveling around all three, but I only count them as one (United Kingdom) to be as accurate as possible. The point is that I have seen and experienced a lot, and have met thousands of interesting and inspiring people all over the world. My life is richer because of it and, I like to think that, by sharing my travels on social media and by writing about them on this blog for the past 10 years, I have also played a role in encouraging others to go beyond their comfort zone or at least to learn more about the rich history and diversity of people on this planet.

If you want to know a bit more about the man and the philosophy that has inspired and guided much of my travels, especially in Europe, then I encourage you to read the article in its entirety here:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/03/20/magazine/rick-steves-travel-world.html

And yes, in case you are wondering, I also kept handwritten journals of my first trips to Europe long before I started this blog. I still have them and love to reread them occasionally as they remind me of how clueless about the world I was as a typical American young adult.