Quote of the week
It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn.
Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life — and travel — leaves marks on you.
The journey is part of the experience — an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.
Why Obama’s election matters
He might turn out to be a great disappointment – just another American President looking after American interest and trying to pull a fast one on the rest of us. He might be more conservative than we are hoping and far less liberal than the McCain/Palin bullies are trying to pretend. He might invade another country like George Bush or forsake the poor and marginalised in his own country. Yet, I am hoping with every fibre in my body that Barack Obama wins the US election in ten days time. This report about early voting in the Presedential election sums up why:
For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president.
