Rolling Steel Tent

My nomadic friend Dale said the following in a video:

“Everybody always says to us, ‘Be careful,’ you know, ‘Be careful out there, be careful, there’s all kinds of bad people. Be careful!’ And we really haven’t met any yet. We’ve just met nice, kind people.”

The warnings are slightly amusing, because all of us are part of someone else’s warnings to their friends and loved ones. We are part of their great, scary unknown. Decent people afraid of decent people only because they’re outside each other’s bubbles of familiarity.

Yes, there are bad people out there. There are also bad people in your home town. But they’re sort of the devils you know. It’s the devils you don’t know that cause anxiety—even though they probably aren’t any different or more numerous than your local devils.

One of my favorite sayings, which I’ll have tattooed on my arm someday soon, is:

Travel cures ignorance

What are things like in a distant place? Go and see for yourself. What are people like several states, several borders, several cultures away? Go and see for yourself. Form your opinions from personal experience and reality, not from hearsay, uninformed assumptions or not wanting to leave your comfort zone. Your mind and your life will expand.