A Northern Tourist in Waco, Texas
Bridging the Cultural Divide One Conversation at a Time
I don’t travel to get away from it all.
When I was a busy, stressed-out law professor, I couldn’t wait to escape to a resort where I could relax and sip cocktails by the pool.
But now that I am a self-employed author and retreat leader, I crave a different kind of experience. I long to learn about other cultures and see the world from a fresh perspective.
I believe in the transformational power of travel. It helps us understand others better, and opens up our minds and hearts to people who have different belief systems and values. But first we have to have real conversations with the people who live and work in the places that are just tourist destinations to us.
When I retired at the end of 2019, I planned to spend the next couple of years travelling around the globe, talking to people and looking for promising places to hold retreats. But then the pandemic struck and International travel became close to impossible.
So I jumped on the bandwagon to become a tourist in my own country, escaping the isolation of the pandemic by taking road trips to parts of the US that I have never seen. When Travel Media Lab offered me the opportunity to visit Waco with a group of…
