An essay

The world is small right? We are all connected, and related, and have a general understanding of how this world works… right? There are too many coincidences and 5 degree of separation rules to prove this wrong…right?

Wrong.

This world is not small.

My world is small. Our worlds are small.

I have been to 7 countries in the past 5 weeks. I will hit 5 more in the next month. I have climbed the great wall, and danced in the streets of Cambodia, and rock climbed in southern Thailand… and seen nothing.

My small world is expanding at a very rapid pace, but is still confined by my own mind. I have seen enough to recognize that our physical world has a limitless number of faces. These faces can be described by adjectives galore, or photographed to help the memory stay sharp. But, these faces are a glimpse, a temporary recognition of beauty or rawness. Happiness in the recognition of beauty is a mechanism that presents itself defenseless against non-pleasurable things. So these faces amount to little more than notches on a belt. These faces are finite… these faces are not the world.

The world is a collection of people, thoughts, and convictions. The world is war, and hate, and genocide, and brotherly love. The world is people; imperfect people that make mistakes, and sometimes bring out the best in themselves and others to correct them. The world is thoughts that transcend humanity. The world is socialism, and capitalism. The world is a series of convictions. It’s a hate for those who are unlike you (because they are different), and an admiration of those who are unlike you (because you should be different). It’s a love for wealth, stuff, God (or all of the above). The world is loving life because it’s simple, and a longing for the complex. The world I am experiencing rises above the world I see. The faces of the world are put to shame by the minds and hearts within it. Humanity is indivisible, and the hearts and minds of the world are infinite.

In this big world there are big problems, and with big problems comes big responsibility to those who have the means to do something about it. It’s too bad that normally those with these means think the world is small. Or at least prefer to make their world small. My world is growing daily. So is my responsibility.

Traveling is funny because it’s an addiction. It’s an insatiable desire to see and do. I have seen and done, and will see and will do a lifetime worth of things this semester. However it amounts to nothing if I remember the faces of the physical world, and forget the faces of humanity. Humanity demands a heart and mind that are changed. Minds and hearts undergoing the same progress that it wants to see in the world. Minds and hearts that are addicted to seeing change more than sight seeing (sight seeing is the gateway drug to this addiction). This heart is developing. My mind is expanding.

Time to stop sitting on the bench, and to get in the game; the world is too big to not get involved.