In Defense Of Travel — After Losing Your Job
Not that it’s almost always a good idea, but is there any better time to drop everything, forget responsibility, and to travel the world than when you find yourself looking at a bright, freshly delivered pink slip lying on your desk? This article over at Travel + Leisure, aimed at the 2.6 million who lost their job in the U.S. last year, urges the unemployed to embrace their newly found freedom and — hopefully with that carefully tended savings acquired over the last decade of work, right? — to take some time off and finally take that long overdue trip, perhaps to attempt a switch in careers.
Claire writes, “If it’s yoga, train to be a yoga instructor on a tropical Thai island. Have you always wanted to write a novel? See if you’ve got the chops at a writers’ retreat in a medieval French village. Learn carpentry in a mountain village in Venezuela.” Hmm, I don’t see myself splitting logs in the upper Andes, but maybe I could write a novel about a carpenter in Venezuela. But instead he’ll be from Israel, and he’ll preach to the masses about philosophy and wander the desert aimlessly . . . I think I’m going to flesh this idea out a bit in my free time.