Daily writing prompt
What are the biggest mistakes people make when visiting your country?
Too much time in the big city and missing the beauty entirely.
PROMPT: Biggest Mistakes
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Tag Archives: Philosophy of the Traveler
FIVE WISE LINES [June 2026]
When I was younger I could remember anything,
Mark twain
whether it had happened or not;
but my faculties are decaying now and soon
I shall be able to remember only the things
that never happened.
“The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
Plutarch [paraphrased]
but a fire to be kindled.”
Judge a man by his questions
Voltaire
rather than his answers.
Resist much, obey little.
Walt whitman; “To the states“
People don’t take trips —
John steinbeck
trips take people.
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PROMPT: Unlimited Budget
Daily writing prompt
If you had an unlimited budget for 24 hours, what would you do?
I’d buy a round-trip ticket for a place distant and interesting. I’m presuming I could spend money on that day for something the benefit of which would come later (i.e. that nothing turns into pumpkin at the end of the day.) I would not want the inevitable cavity search that would come from buying and flying on the same day.
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PROMPT: Perfect Road Trip
As loosely and flexibly as your stress tolerance will bear.
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PROMPT: Local Custom
My wife and I once had tea in Nagaland with men who’d been cannibals in their youth, but they weren’t anymore (and — in point of fact — probably didn’t have the teeth for solid food anymore,) so I don’t think that counts.
For the most part, I don’t think of customs as being more or less interesting, just — sometimes — unexpected. I’ve noticed that most people see cultural customs as the strange behaviors other peoples do, while their own culture’s customs are largely invisible to them (i.e. “That’s just how things are done; it really couldn’t be done any other way.”) So, I guess it’s been most interesting, having returned from living abroad for more than a dozen years, noticing just how many strange and baffling things Americans do.
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PROMPT: Decision
Daily writing prompt
Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
Every decision to travel anywhere has paid a dividend.
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PROMPT: Never Want to Visit
The molten core. Because it’s not a dry heat.
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PROMPT: Favorite Restaurant
I can’t tell you, precisely, but I know it has one location, is authentically itself, and is what some might describe as a dive. Interestingly, you can find it anywhere in the world if you know where to look.
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Nomad [Free Verse]
One who doesn't feel
a lot at home anywhere
Begins to feel a little
at home everywhere.
He sees not strangeness
in strangers --
No more than he sees
in himself.
Any one place is not
greater nor lesser
than anywhere else.
Lands of gold and riches
are as likely devoid of
authenticity - of soul -
as impoverished places
are dripping with it.
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PROMPT: Cross-Country
Daily writing prompt
You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?
Could be any or all of the above, plus camel, foot, or snowmobile — depending on the country, of course.
I can’t say how I’d take a cross-country trip without knowing which country it is that I’m crossing. Vatican City frowns on you driving a bus through it, Russia is too long to do entirely on cross-country skis, and one can’t transit Bolivia in a ferry.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 