A World Without Heroes
Before we begin…
This was my final journal entry in Taiwan written from the air just like my first one. The stillness of a long haul trans-Pacific flight was perfect for me to reflect on one of the trip’s most important meta lesson on ambition versus simplicity.
A World Without Heroes
I’m grateful for the three weeks in Taiwan. It allowed me to love again. To reconnect with the common human. To understand the world from their perspective in ways different from my ivory tower. I came into contact with so many characters from all walks of life.
From the hostel travelers to food stall vendors to tea farmers to street performers to indigenous people to mountain hikers to party goers to old and new friends. All my interactions have been with ordinary people doing ordinary things.
I had to go out of my way to connect with them back in San Francisco because everyone there wants to be extraordinary. As Olivia says, their policies are warm, but their demeanor is cold.
Because at the heart of ambition is selfishness, scarcity and urgency. This is the nature of every wannabe hero, savior of mankind, to not only be appreciated, but worshipped. It is the same as a needy beggar, starving for recognition and praise. Egocentrism comes in many disguises.
What I witnessed instead in Taiwan are ordinary people desiring simple things: a place to live, having fun with friends, being there for family, and finding jobs that they enjoy. No one is trying to save the world. Yet their world feels warmer, safer, and closer to paradise than the high tech, fast paced, “progressive” world that I come from.
This is the biggest takeaway I got from my travels. That simple desires and simple living could actually be better for society. That traveling allows us to experience the simple lives of others as something rich and novel, breaking down the barriers of understanding, while building bridges to respect and appreciation. That our world is indeed a wondrous place that will never run out of things to explore even as Google Maps seems to know it all. That every person is their own world to know.
Just every day people going about their day.
Related Insights - The best thing America can do
That is why the best thing for United States to do is to subsidize a gap year for every student when they turn 18 and cost less than university. It would open up the minds of our young people at a critical age before they become formed by the existing societal paradigm, an opportunity for them to form their own conclusions, values and personal truths. Force them to adapt to change and the unknown. To become more whole human beings before they join the ranks of “adulthood”.
At the national level, it would instill openness and perspective of alternative societal structures. As the parable goes, a fish does not know what water is. Most importantly, perhaps it would inject some much needed humility into the American psyche. That our system may not be the best, most viable way to live by. That the world is not so simple, yet its complexity and diversity isn’t something to be feared, but explored and appreciated.
This is how our next generation may become wise relatively quickly. Travel is education, perhaps the best kind in our increasingly connected and chaotic world. The sooner they invest in it, the longer they can reap its dividends.
Travel is experiential education.
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