From 1962, when I left the small East Texas farm town where I grew up and joined the army, until 2012, when I retired from government service after serving as the American ambassador to Zimbabwe, my life can only be accurately described as semi-nomadic. During those fifty years I set foot on every continent except Antarctica, and experienced things that many people can only experience watching TV or reading—provided they are inclined to watch or read about such things.
I visited Stonehenge in England, the Great Wall in China, and the ancient stone city of Great Zimbabwe in southeastern Zimbabwe. I’ve landed on a glacier in northern India and flown to a mountaintop base of Pakistan’s famed Khyber Rifles Regiment. Many of the world’s capitals, some well-known, such as Moscow, London, Paris, Beijing, Bangkok, New Delhi, Bogota, and Pretoria; others lesser known, such as Vientiane, Freetown, and Yaounde, are as familiar to me as my home town. I’ve eaten strange foods and participated in strange customs, and learned half a dozen languages to varying degrees of proficiency.
I’ve lived and worked in nine countries and thirteen of the U.S. states, and have visited fifty-nine states and thirty countries. The number is higher when you count places like Wake Island in the Pacific or countries that flights I was on had brief stopovers. During those fascinating years, I relocated every twelve to thirty-six months, often moving from one continent to another.
When I left government service in September 2012, the physical travel diminished – I’ve done one foreign trip since then – with three of four trips per year to destinations within the U.S., for periods of one to three days.
I am, however, still a nomad at heart. Only now, my journeys are of the mind. I’ve learned that one doesn’t have to have a passport, book a flight, and pack a bag to visit fascinating places. Thanks to the Internet, I’ve been able to travel not just through space, but through time. I’ve experienced the life of Medieval Scottish knights as I did research for A Clash of Colors, a novelette about knights in the Middle Ages.
While preparing lectures for two of the online graduate courses I teach for Arizona State University, I’ve gotten a look at ancient Mali, home to Mansa Musa, one of the world’s richest men, and the 25th Egyptian dynasty of pharaohs who came from the Kingdom of Kush, what is now the African nation of Sudan. What’s more, I’ve been able to share my travels with others and have, hopefully, inspired them to add mental exploration to their physical journeys of the world.
My horizons were broadened by my travels around the world and I wouldn’t trade those experiences for all of Mansa Musa’s gold. But, my mental journeys have broadened my mind to encompass the past as well as the present. I’ve learned that cultural differences are encountered not just when we cross foreign borders.
Right here in the land of my birth, having moved from the suburbs to the country and then finally to an urban environment, I’ve learned that the cultural differences among these three here at home are as stark as the difference between the United States and Sierra Leone. Even within the same state, the social customs and language are different.
When I was constantly packing and unpacking, usually to move to or returning from a place where the differences were very apparent, the domestic differences didn’t manifest themselves. With time to observe, they are now as obvious as a pimple on a teenagers’ nose on prom night.
I’m still a nomad. Won’t you join me on my journey? | NWI
