Thomas Swick on the True Meaning of Travel

"Today, I think of travel as anything that extends one's realm of experience or expands one's lexicon of acquired convictions -- and occurs beyond the backyard (thus distinguishing it from reading). It is a moment that comes when we are out of our element and allows us to see, or feel, or think, anew. I grow weary of people who declare that travel is dead, who complain about McDonald's in Paris and go off to Namibia in order to avoid being a tourist. It's like saying experience is finite. Yet, if you go to the McDonald's and meet some locals, maybe wrangle a tour of the city or an invitation for coffee, you're more of a traveler than those who fly into Windhoek and book a group safari. …