Salvador is a dirty bastard

Apologies for the long time since my last post. I’ve been busy getting the house ready for my long absence. I’ve had a few adventures, too, but no time yet to write them up and share with you. So here’s …

“Reclaiming Travel”

This was a nice travel piece in the New York Times on 7 July 2012. Here are a couple of excerpts that resonated with me:

When we travel … we are asking for hospitality. There’s great vulnerability in this. It also requires considerable strength. To be a good guest — like being a good host — one needs to be secure in one’s own premises: where you stand, who you are. This means we tend to romanticize travel as a lonely pursuit. In fact, a much deeper virtue arises from the demands it makes on us as social beings.

Travel is a search for meaning, not only in our own lives, but also in the lives of others.
…[It] should be an art through which our restlessness finds expression. We must bring back the idea of travel as a search.

Sample suggestion for Arts page

Here are two comments for the Arts page. The suggested books came from my friend Amy, an anthropologist who does field work in the Czech Republic.  She loaned me both of these excellent books before I launched this blog. (Thanks, Amy!)  Here’s the basic info I’m asking you to include with your comments — place, medium, title, artist — like this, please:

Czech, book, “To the Castle and Back,” by Vaclav Havel

Czech, book, “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” by Milan Kundera

Next, I put these into a post on the subject. Naturally, it’s called “Czech books.” (Can I get a giggle from any bankers or fans of silly puns?) I also mentioned the topic of “tramping,” about which I hope to find some more good material. Further comments related to the many fine arts of the Czech Republic will be incorporated into that post as I receive or read them.

If you have questions or suggestions about this process, please comment on this sample post.  If you wish to suggest additional Czech material, please comment on Czech books.

Thank you!