If anyone doubted that we have a major tsunami of a climate change happening. Look around. It’s chaotic, extreme and plentiful. Patterns are out of rhythm. Warm and balmy days followed by severe temperatures. As a traveler, I feel torn. My plane journey is not helping. The bus is not helping. Even trains are not helping. Cruises. The monstrous 5000 floating hotels that pollute our coastal cities and seas are not helping. So. What to do. Traveling is important. It enriches and teaches us about differences and maybe helps us to approach the world with greater tolerance.  It sparks adventure. Something that sparks to most of us. Can we make a difference beyond just curtailing our travel plans. Traveling is a huge piece of our economic health. Creates jobs and adds greatly to a countries gdp.

Do we slow our travel. Business travel has never recovered from Covid. Zoom has replaced it. That helps. Should we avoid those wish list places, cruises and multi faceted mega all inclusive resorts. If we did we would likely shave some of the strain from our daily travel grind. Should we stop visiting the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Essentially leave them be. It would help a little. Nothing is a silver bullet. Awareness and an analytic would help. To fully understand the damage we are doing. Maybe slow it down a little. Dont stop traveling. Just be smarter and more selective and maybe we will see a difference. Cruises are banned from entering certain harbors. That’s good. And make travelers be super aware of how to offload recyclable garbage. It’s often not clear and therefore it goes to the waste pile. Lots of small ways that keep us moving but keep us aware.

A friend of mine was telling me a story of what a friend of hers takes from hotel rooms under the guise of its ok as “I have paid for room!” And I wondered why hotels install those coat hangers that essentially are designed as a deterrent to people taking them home. I mean really, who takes coat hanger’s home! I have enough of them. I need to get rid of them. So, who are these people. What else do they take!

Apparently, they are out there. Towels, toilet paper (yep believe it or not) shampoos, lotions, bathrobes, basically anything not locked down. Crikey! I am often struck that the one thing you need, toothpaste for example, hotels are stingy, mainly not providing. But I was shocked.

Recently at a very nice 4-star hotel in London, the coat hangers were simply not stealable. And according to my friend, with good reason. Hotel thieves are out there. Walking out in broad daylight under cover of a suitcase with a stash of lotions, shampoos and towels and toilet paper. But not the coat hangers!

It’s sometimes said that Tour Guides or Tour Managers are an important link between the past and present. Like an ancient storyteller they recount history, massage facts, and pass them through generations. And like an actor in a play, every telling, every anecdote is different each time. It’s a fascinating business. They need to be equipped with a few languages, and for sure a super personality. They don’t regurgitate history or current events; they paint pictures and bring to life ancient stories well-trodden. They must imagine even though they have seen or been through the story a million times, that this is a first time for their audience. Their excitement must be palpable to their audience. That’s the gift. That’s when the transfer of knowledge happens. And funny enough, it happens frequently and can be life changing.

Every year we celebrate our group of Tour Managers with an annual meeting somewhere in Europe. This year it was Lisbon. One of my favorite cities. The starting point for many explorers in the 15th century. And there we were. Our merry bunch of explorers getting together before the holidays and the new season begins.

I just recently attended a language convention in Chicago. It was the national convention for teachers who teach foreign languages. Teaching in itself is an amazing profession. You become an influencer you create curiosity, and you teach tolerance.

We work in partnership with educators, across-the-board. Teachers of math, teachers of science, teachers of language, teachers of history and English. But this weekend, it was our privilege to host  language teachers . They are an amazing group of people. They travel, they travel with kids. They teach kids other cultures and how to break through using language to understand cultures that they would never usually interact with.

Teachers change lives. They help kids change direction and furthermore, a lot of the kids go study abroad. And many of them will end up living overseas. Language is a gift. Even if you try and you’re not brilliant, it’s a real gift. Thanks to all of the amazing teachers who travel with us and all who came to see us in Chicago. Love Chicago!   

And on this particular day before Thanksgiving, let’s hope that the educational blocks we build seep through. Never a better time than now to teach tolerance and hope that we can achieve some kind of stability in our troubled  world.

Happy Thanksgiving.