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Abstract

tural limitations are very real, but they cannot control your mind, or stop your personal growth if you do not let them. The world is your oyster — whatever that may mean, coming from this vegetarian.</p><p id="4d37">Ways to travel the world even when you cannot afford it include not only watching amazing and educational travel shows, but also reading — reading books about different places, different times in history, fiction or nonfiction can really transport you to anywhere. I am big on books, obviously.</p><p id="7bad">Also finding the world here, where you are — you are in the world too. This town we live in has some diversity, your town might too. Take advantage of what is where you are. Support the world around you. Be in it, with it, and open to it in ways that are respectful, caring, and mutually beneficial.</p><figure id="65f3"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*yeLa1HVECmrA0yNG"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@pillepriske?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Pille-Riin Priske</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="554f">All of my life I have surrounded myself with people from other places and countries. My roommates in college were all from Japan and Mexico. My time spent with these girls was life changing in every possible good way. I hung out with friends from India and Germany. I spent most of my time with the International Students Club. I have taught ESL in person, online, on purpose or by accident. I have attempted to learn other languages in the same ways. It has not gone that great for me, but I try and that I think, is an honest and kind way of being open to the realities of the diversity and vastness of this world.</p><p id="067f">I have been a Girl Scout leader whose one claim to fame was writing a grant that let me take my tiny troop of inner-city Milwaukee teen girls to a different restaurant every month with the express focus on exploring the world through food, and also, the secret focus of addressing the massive food insecurity (aka hunger) these girls were living with. We ate Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, African food, Thai food, and I had the owner of each restaurant come and talk to my girls. And then I had my girls write them a thank you letter telling them what they loved best. We can have magic right here.</p><p id="4509">I have also signed up with an organization to be a host mom for the summer. I was a mom for months to teen girls from Taiwan, France, and Italy. I packed their lunches, showed them around the city, helped them with homework, and most of all, learned from them and supported them while they navigated this new place so far from their homes. I am still in touch with them today, all of them grown up adults who still call me their American mom. What a blessing!</p><p id="c734">And yet, that longing to travel and see things and ‘live life’ as my fiance would say — a life that is not just work, home, bills, work, home, bills well it is just so hard to quiet this desire to walk cobblestone streets with a baguette, explore ancient ruins and beautiful museums, and my personal dream, to drink all of the coffee and wine in every major coffee and wine city that exists.</p><figure id="781a"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*yHtRqennmz9AKPpZ"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jlhopes?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">David Edelstein</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure><p id="4574">Other things we can do to travel the world from home until we can, maybe one day travel the world include cooking global dishes in ways that are respectful, sustainable, and fun for the whole famil

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y. Or making special weekly dates to try local restaurants that are owned by immigrants from all over the world.</p><p id="cffc">Supporting the world that is here means valuing the people who bring that world to us.</p><p id="5e97">We have to value the world and we have to value the people we share it with. Making sure we support government policies and leaders who value the world, not just the environment of the world, the planet itself, the trees and dirt and water and air, and who strive to actually fight global warming, yes, but who value the world in terms of education, embracing diversity, and encouraging peace is also a way to travel the world from your couch. Voting with your dreams, perhaps. And also, your empathy for the fact that traveling the world is only possible when there is a world of people and places left to travel to.</p><p id="c9e8">The world is big. Not one of us will ever see it all. But we can embrace the spirit of travel and strengthen the sense of connection, learning, global unity and peace right here, right now via opening our minds to all that exists and all that might be possible. TV shows are wonderful, books are always wonderful, cooking and eating are both necessary and wonderful. And supporting those who are the world in your own communities is a wonderful, meaningful, and vital way to ensure the benefits of being a global citizen flow in every direction.</p><p id="c1c6">We are all connected, know it or not, like it or not for some, and rising up to a level of respect and appreciation for people and planet is something we can all do no matter where we are or if we have a savings account.</p><p id="bed3">©<a href="https://medium.com/@jennyjustice">Jenny Justice.</a> All Rights Reserved.</p><p id="cffd"><b><i>Jenny Justice</i></b><i>, Poet. Author of Love in the Time of Climate Change and Reveal. You can read more of her poetry at<a href="https://medium.com/justice-poetic"> Justice Poetic.</a></i> <i>Sign up for her newsletter <a href="https://jennyjustice.substack.com/p/coming-soon?r=2jhb2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy">here</a>.</i></p><div id="3606" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/upon-learning-that-planets-make-sounds-5e67380eeda1"> <div> <div> <h2>Upon Learning that Planets Make Sounds</h2> <div><h3>A Poem</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*6CEUev4srRU4dN4m)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="88dc" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/paycheck-to-paycheck-parenting-ad0ff5ae85aa"> <div> <div> <h2>Paycheck to Paycheck Parenting</h2> <div><h3>Some reflection, some ideas</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*2rc-byDpZjqTse_P)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="bcb6" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/fraggle-rock-and-deep-environmental-philosophy-ab047d906ee6"> <div> <div> <h2>Fraggle Rock and Deep Environmental Philosophy</h2> <div><h3>The Trash Heap Has Spoken</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*f47IxXmh-rGbCycA)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Traveling The World For Free, For Now

Ways to Explore the World While Your Dreams are Deferred

My fiance and I love to watch travel shows. The combination of travel show with food show happens to be our favorite. We have dreams of travel once we have enough money saved up, once we have the time. But for now we make it a habit to nurture our dreams, stir our spirits, and educate our minds by watching as many travel shows as possible. Somebody Feed Phil is our current favorite. This show is adorable, kind, respectful, smart and a delight to watch. We also enjoy good old Rick Steves, bless you PBS for all that you bring to those of us with big dreams and little pocketbooks.

We usually watch them while eating dinner on the couch. While we watch we talk about all of the wonderful places that exist in this world, the amazing food, and the complicated histories and present times of so many places on this planet. We want to see it all, do it all, live it all. We talk about our honeymoon and what it might be like to be able to do some of these world traveling global eating things we see our TV friends doing.

Sometimes it feels like a bit of class-based torture. That some get to experience so much in life and others, most others, get to watch it all happen on TV. But even in this there’s comfort in the fact that our minds and emotions are primed for this empathy education — we want to see more, know more, do more, but we are limited by those pesky things called material conditions and financial realities. Inequality is at its greatest gap since the first Gilded Age. Poverty and homelessness are on the rise. And most of us in this nation are really in a tight spot — living paycheck to paycheck, and probably without healthcare.

So dreams of traveling to Venice to enjoy aged cheese and balsamic vinegar and take in the city sights on a gondola ride might be on hold for now, for a while, and I suppose the best we can do is keep at it, fight for better government policies and living wages, and hope that climate change spares some of these beautiful places a bit longer and they can wait for us. Or, following Buddhism, be happy and grateful with our life, accept that some things that are not for us, enjoy the moment, and find peace. Sigh.

In the meantime, we are here, at home, together and happy with the family we are making. And we can watch those who can travel, and eat, do so in ways that might inspire us to create some new and exciting experiences right here at home, within our budget. Sure we have not come up with those ways yet, but I did spend about 7 dollars on a wedge of cheese last week and that was a luxury and a gift! And yes, you can bet I bought the fancy artisan crackers to go with it!

I have always been one to believe you can teach yourself anything that you want to learn. That you can grow, explore, and feed your mind at all times. That your world does not have to be limited by the things around you, by your family, by your town, by your access to resources. Yes, certain structural limitations are very real, but they cannot control your mind, or stop your personal growth if you do not let them. The world is your oyster — whatever that may mean, coming from this vegetarian.

Ways to travel the world even when you cannot afford it include not only watching amazing and educational travel shows, but also reading — reading books about different places, different times in history, fiction or nonfiction can really transport you to anywhere. I am big on books, obviously.

Also finding the world here, where you are — you are in the world too. This town we live in has some diversity, your town might too. Take advantage of what is where you are. Support the world around you. Be in it, with it, and open to it in ways that are respectful, caring, and mutually beneficial.

All of my life I have surrounded myself with people from other places and countries. My roommates in college were all from Japan and Mexico. My time spent with these girls was life changing in every possible good way. I hung out with friends from India and Germany. I spent most of my time with the International Students Club. I have taught ESL in person, online, on purpose or by accident. I have attempted to learn other languages in the same ways. It has not gone that great for me, but I try and that I think, is an honest and kind way of being open to the realities of the diversity and vastness of this world.

I have been a Girl Scout leader whose one claim to fame was writing a grant that let me take my tiny troop of inner-city Milwaukee teen girls to a different restaurant every month with the express focus on exploring the world through food, and also, the secret focus of addressing the massive food insecurity (aka hunger) these girls were living with. We ate Italian food, Mexican food, Chinese food, African food, Thai food, and I had the owner of each restaurant come and talk to my girls. And then I had my girls write them a thank you letter telling them what they loved best. We can have magic right here.

I have also signed up with an organization to be a host mom for the summer. I was a mom for months to teen girls from Taiwan, France, and Italy. I packed their lunches, showed them around the city, helped them with homework, and most of all, learned from them and supported them while they navigated this new place so far from their homes. I am still in touch with them today, all of them grown up adults who still call me their American mom. What a blessing!

And yet, that longing to travel and see things and ‘live life’ as my fiance would say — a life that is not just work, home, bills, work, home, bills well it is just so hard to quiet this desire to walk cobblestone streets with a baguette, explore ancient ruins and beautiful museums, and my personal dream, to drink all of the coffee and wine in every major coffee and wine city that exists.

Other things we can do to travel the world from home until we can, maybe one day travel the world include cooking global dishes in ways that are respectful, sustainable, and fun for the whole family. Or making special weekly dates to try local restaurants that are owned by immigrants from all over the world.

Supporting the world that is here means valuing the people who bring that world to us.

We have to value the world and we have to value the people we share it with. Making sure we support government policies and leaders who value the world, not just the environment of the world, the planet itself, the trees and dirt and water and air, and who strive to actually fight global warming, yes, but who value the world in terms of education, embracing diversity, and encouraging peace is also a way to travel the world from your couch. Voting with your dreams, perhaps. And also, your empathy for the fact that traveling the world is only possible when there is a world of people and places left to travel to.

The world is big. Not one of us will ever see it all. But we can embrace the spirit of travel and strengthen the sense of connection, learning, global unity and peace right here, right now via opening our minds to all that exists and all that might be possible. TV shows are wonderful, books are always wonderful, cooking and eating are both necessary and wonderful. And supporting those who are the world in your own communities is a wonderful, meaningful, and vital way to ensure the benefits of being a global citizen flow in every direction.

We are all connected, know it or not, like it or not for some, and rising up to a level of respect and appreciation for people and planet is something we can all do no matter where we are or if we have a savings account.

Jenny Justice, Poet. Author of Love in the Time of Climate Change and Reveal. You can read more of her poetry at Justice Poetic. Sign up for her newsletter here.