and why we are taking this trip

Vittorio announced at dinner that he would be famous after our trip.  In that motherly way you are shocked and slightly cringe at what comes out of your children’s mouth sometimes yet also feel the need to protect their lovely innocence. I pointed him to the quote we have on our board by my favourite explorer Sir Richard Francis Burton which is one of our mantras: 

Do what they manhood bids thee do

From none but self expect applause

He noblest lives and noblest dies

Who makes and keeps

His self-made laws

It gave us the chance to discuss and share the reasons for taking this trip and what our expectations for it are for it.  

We have a website, we have an instagram account, we even have stickers… are they not all accessories of modern fame?  And why have we felt the need to engage in this way and not just slip off into the night?

This trip is obviously led more by my imagination, connecting and sharing it as widely as possible is very much at the heart of it.  In all my travels and adventures I have had the great privilege of touching so many different realities and have come to love our differences.  The same problem is tackled from so many different angles and I have grown a deep appreciation for humanity, its resilience and am constantly amazed at the solutions that we figure out to problems that just a moment before seemed unfathomable. 

Our modern lives are so connected that we are lured into believing that we are all living the same lives in the same way.  Even though Vittorio’s single desire right now is for the trip is to get to Japan, the land of Pokemon and Ju-gi-oh, my hope is for him to learn that there is always a solution… its just how you look at the problem.  If we are able to share this lesson with as many people as possible it may not be fame, but it will be our success.