The Frontier

Ran Hennes said some interesting things in class on Wednesday that got the wheels turning in my brain, but I didn't have anything good to say at the time.

He asked us if there were any frontiers left for the traveler. There is no more honorable death at the top of the highest mountain in the world, or forging toward the South Pole for the first time. The only new frontier is space. Adventurers must go deep under the Arctic ice in the winter to find new adventures nowadays. Where once intrepid wanderers were automatically travelers simply by visiting foreign lands, today it has all been done, and we are all tourists. That is Fussel's view. Hennes said that he had friends who were so cynical of tourism that they refused to travel.

This is how I should have replied:

Yes, the frontier is changing. There is no more New World, there is no more uncharted South Pole. Every inch of the earth has been mapped by satellites and put on the Internet, where it is easily accessible in the comfort of your living room. The only uncontacted people only stay uncontacted because there are strict laws prohibiting the flood of tourism. Many economies depend on tourists, cater to tourists, and their culture revolves around the tourist industry.

So what is left to discover? Why travel?

I think in this era of increased human connection, we have an unprecedented opportunity to forge new bridges with people who were once inaccessible due to language or location. We have new opportunities to learn from people who can challenge the way we view the world. In this way of traveling, we discover as much about ourselves as the places we visit. It is a way of traveling that can give back to the places you visit--by discovering the humanity that unites us, by celebrating life, by sharing what we have and bringing joy in communion.

This frontier never gets old.

To the people who do not travel because they do not want to be tourists, I say, stay home. The anti-tourist is an elitist, incapable of discovering the joy of sharing a meal with a stranger, watching the sunset and the stars, swimming in the ocean or sleeping on a beach--finding your humanity outside your closed universe. If the world outside your home appears cold and dead, then something inside your soul has died. There is always something to find, something to learn, something to inspire--if you look. But looking requires humility. It requires accepting that your bounded life is not a monopoly on the human experience. Once this is accepted, millions of worlds blossom...infinite encounters, infinite spaces to discover, infinite opportunities to go where no one has gone before--because the world changes in the blink of an eye. And suddenly, the world opens up...

So what if you aren't the first European to venture into the Far East?
So what if you will never plant the first flag on the South Pole?

You are the first YOU to visit those places -- and the only question is, what do you do with your only opportunity? Anything is possible. You are a traveler, your life is your journey, and that is your frontier.