These are musings of business travel. The observations of a man who cannot eat anything he sees. Everywhere you go in America sugar is staring at you out of glass cases. Pastries are so neatly arranged, cookies are perfectly stacked, factory farmed burgers beckon, and if you look beyond the fine print of the healthy snacks you realize that sugar is ubiquitous.
This became an issue on my recent journey because of what seems is inevitable in plane travel these days - delays. I was delayed in New York - twice and then delayed in Philadelphia - twice. There was no real reason given.
My colleague at The Frontier Project, Kirsten Cluthe passed me the book Travels With Charley In Search of America recently, It is John Steinbeck’s account of a road trip across the USA in the the shadow of the 1950’s and 1960’s. A trip tucked between useless wars abroad and crucial culture wars at home. Travel back then in our land was intimate. It took time. I recommend this book. It helps to remind you of how amazing the country is and how it could be. It also reminds us that the challenges that we have as a people with trying to understand one another are nothing new
Now, the time we take traveling is spent sitting in airports or on trains that move far too slow. We don’t see nearly enough, stop long enough, or interact with the strange and odd like travelers once did in the past. America is a huge country and I often wonder what actually binds us all together. Why have these strange lands stayed linked politically, emotionally, culturally?
Today I met a dairy farmer, a mom from Long Island, a telecom executive who has a commercial pilot license, and a pharmaceutical rep. I found something in common with all of them. imagine what we could have discovered if we had more time to really get to know one another?
This is Day-9 of my sugar cleanse and day-1 of a 4-day trip south... more to come.
Comments