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By Marsha L. Barnes
guest columnist

By the time you read this article, I pray that my sisters and I have made it back from our trip to New York City. What started as just wishful thinking between one of my sisters and me turned into a trip with all four Livingston sisters and several of my nieces. This trip had me thinking about earlier times I was fortunate enough to do some serious traveling.  It’s not just Mark Twain who can point out the obvious benefits of travel.

Although I never expected to be able to travel much, things worked out for me during the last few years. Starting in 2016, a family member needed someone to ride with her as she moved back to Los Angeles, a city I had never visited. Along the way, so many things became clear to me, not just the beautiful landscape changes. The menu items offered at restaurants the further west we traveled were so surprising to me. Iced tea was no longer an option in most of the places we stopped. In Los Angeles itself, every menu I read reflected a much healthier version of things I recognized, which was fine with me. A dessert served one night at dinner consisted of huge, fresh California strawberries and nothing else. Delicious! Does that mean Mississippi’s food is still not the best I’ve ever had? Of course not. But it did open my eyes to how much of what we eat is simply a result of where we were born and where we live. I met interesting people and realized quickly how many careers in that area are indirectly related to the massive industry of movie and television-making.  I met some genuinely nice people.

Two times during the past few years I have been able to tour Europe with my sons. Blake was able to travel both times and Garren once. Not only did we meet others from different regions of the United States (since it was a student-related trip), but we also interacted with others from cultures around Europe. Our tour guides, for instance, were exceptionally educated. Having to share cultural, geographical, and local information about each stop we made along the guided tour required them to be. I was especially in awe of their ability to speak not only many different languages but to do so with such ease as we entered new countries on our tour. As I told Blake at one point: “I feel extremely undereducated.” Observing various individuals at different points of interest showed me just how differently some in other cultures communicate with each other. The body language of one beautiful Italian woman, for instance, at an Apple store absolutely mesmerized me. Her volume, her stance, her gestures all represented a much more expressive language exchange than what we are used to in the States. My obviously Southern accent was noticed and commented on in various locations in England, something that also did not bother me in the least. It reminded me that I was the one with the interesting accent over there, not the other way around. Visiting historical sites from the Middle Ages and earlier reminded me of just how young our country is comparatively. I also realized just how much of a nuisance we tourists can be to some of the locals whose body language made it clear that we were irritating them. I can understand. I think the main difference both noticed by me and pointed out by others is the speed at which we Americans walked on our tours. Keep in mind: I’m known for walking fast. My students used to ask me, “Where’s the fire, Mrs. Barnes?” because of how fast I walked from one point to another. But even I had a hard time keeping pace not only with the locals but also with our guide himself. I do admit, of course, that most of these fast-walkers were in the urban areas we traveled through and had to walk everywhere they went. But something told me that, even in the more rural areas, daily walking was a bigger part of most Europeans’ lives than it is in our area.

The main takeaway from my European travels for me was the realization that our world is much bigger than we think. The problems of our state and nation are not on Europeans’ daily radar and vice versa. I remember that the issue of Brexit was widely discussed in Europe at the time, something that did not affect us Americans directly. Our crazy, divisive political atmosphere here is not the norm in all countries. Some may have it worse than we do, but others don’t experience it at all. Our Spanish guide was clearly a huge fan of futbol (soccer) and made a point of sharing the latest scores whenever he could. In fact, many places we went had their local team’s game on television. The passion for that sport in Europe is truly remarkable. That’s the whole point: it’s a huge world out there, and our problems and interests are not the sole focus of it. I think that is a very important lesson to learn.

As fun and enriching as my travel experiences have been, I was ready and happy to return home to my beloved Mississippi. Truly, there’s no place like home. I hope to be healthy enough to continue traveling as long as I can, and I wish I had the funds to send everyone on a dream vacation. But, until my next trip, I will savor the lessons, the landscape, the people, and the memories of my earlier ones. Now, savor the words of our wise sage, Mark Twain:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”