How do you define success in life?
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Successful is the squirrel that gets the nuts to keep it alive through Winter, without burying a ton of useless nuts. [Fun fact: Squirrels lose track of as many as half the nuts they bury (and seldom sit and enjoy a sunset.)]
What’s one thing you own that holds deep sentimental value?
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When we got our household storage back after 12+ years abroad, I discovered all sorts of items with tremendous sentimental value that I’d forgotten had existed. That’s how sentimental I am.
What’s the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?
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My “worst travel experience” is like my “worst sexual experience;” it still beats the hell out of sitting at home alone on the couch. (Also, worst travel experiences make the best travel stories — given enough distance in the rearview to see the humor.)
What’s one piece of travel advice you always follow?
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入乡随俗 — i.e. “enter the village, follow the customs.”
How do you manage stress?
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Through the realization that one packs one’s own load.
Everything is passing weather, how one dials up (or down) the significance of the present situation is up to one (even if the situation, itself, is completely out of one’s hands.) As the Stoics said, either you can or can’t do something about a given event — either way, it’s not worth one’s worry. If you can’t do anything about it, worry is futile. If you can, do the virtuous thing and you can feel content even if it doesn’t seem to work out for you.
What’s a country that’s at the top of your bucket list?
To travel to, or to take over and rule with an iron fist? “Bucket list” seems a bit intense for the former. You make a plan and pack a bag. No one has to die here. [Unless one’s dream destination is North Korea, in which case, maybe.]
What’s the best way to meet new people while traveling?
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Don’t travel in a big tour group or cruise. As a single or a couple, one can’t help but interact with locals. Stay where nationals of that country stay; eat where they eat.
If aliens arrived tomorrow, what’s the first thing you’d ask them?
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Do you speak English? 你会说普通话吗？¿Hablas español?
Alternatively, do you have a spare Babel Fish?
Anything else seems pretentious. I certainly don’t speak Alpha Centaurian.
What’s a personal mantra or philosophy you live by?
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First, I don’t have a mantra. While I believe Transcendental Meditation to be a fine approach, other meditative techniques have resonated with me more on a personal level. Unless by “mantra” one is looking for a soundbite that encapsulates the entirety of one’s philosophical thinking — which I also do not have. (At least not a stable one.) Philosophically, I am a Traveler (or, identically – I would argue, a Student.) Epistemologically, this requires a humility about what can and can’t know (though, admittedly, not necessarily humility — generally speaking,) a willingness to empty one’s cup to allow for consideration of new information, and an openness to adopting foreign and unfamiliar ideas where they prove useful.
What’s the best way to explore a new city?
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On foot, with few objectives locked in, and with a willingness to adjust to opportunity.
In other words, you should never be so obsessed with what a place once was that you miss that it still is — i.e. jumping around from ruin to ruin and never interacting with living natives.
