I can remember when traveling meant to me going on our annual DuQuoin State Fair Journey. We lived 50 miles away in Eldorado, Illinois and the idea of visiting the State Fair was fantastic. Then the church I attended through high school took semi-annual trips to Tennessee or Iowa once to Topeka Kansas and Lincoln, Nebraska. I felt a bit urbane and a world traveler. After Aaron and Jonathon were born we made many trips to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and ultimately a Great Western Holiday and a Great Eastern Adventure. Indeed I had gotten out of Illinois.

My lifelong friend Jeff asked me if I had ever dreamed that one day he and I would be enjoying a cigar on the streets of Paris, France. I had to admit that I had not thought about it as my travel vision had not seen that far. After visiting Paris…I want to return. The many books that I have read and the movies I have seen do not do justice to describing the beauty of the city of lights.

Travel is an investment in the well-being of your soul. For my entire career at Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, I traveled vicariously through the hundreds of students who worked with me who were from all over the world. Their vivid descriptions of their homes enraptured me. I discovered that there is a world full of people who do not see the planet through the eyes of Americans.

I found both the west coast, California, and the east coast, New York City, to be a different America than what I was accustomed to. California had deserts and mountains and seasides and lush green valleys. Travel taught me that we midwesterners have not cornered the market on ideas and manners of living.

Thus travel has educated me as to the Kaleidoscope of humanity. We are not all of the same faith and many of us have none. So often faith is used as a cudgel rather than a comforter. People who are loud abrasive and mean are in the minority. Most of us are searching for the answers to life’s persistent questions. We care about the welfare of our fellow travelers. I watched the Republican Debate last evening and saw an impressive Nikki Haley and heard Mike Pence say that the American people need a government that is as good as they are…