The Travel Bug: Nature versus Nurture

I'll close with two anecdotes. Last Monday I talked with a 25-year-old woman in Memphis, Tennessee, who had only been to one other state in her life. That fact is significant when you know that both Mississippi and Arkansas are within five miles of Memphis.

On Thursday I met a teenager in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, who had no idea how to get to Asheville (home of George Vanderbilt's famous Biltmore estate) 35 miles away. She mentioned offhandedly that the farthest she'd been from home was "two exits up the road." The parents of these two have implanted boundaries that may imprison their children for a lifetime.

The starting bell rings at birth. There is all too little time to get through the gate and down the track. I believe that it's our privilege and duty to introduce our children to the world.