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At Year’s Beginning
Travel and Transformation
Ted Lee Eubanks
12 January 2004
Each of us is born with a discrete psychological space allocated
to "the world." In our lifetime we will fill this space
with whatever information and experiences we have at our disposal.
If a person never leaves their home county, then that county becomes
the world. The same is true for a person who never leaves their
city, state, or country. Never leave the Texas Panhandle? Then
the Texas Panhandle becomes your world. Whatever the physical or
geographical limits of your personal exposure, those experiences
will comprise your world reference.
The phenomenal advances in education and communications have altered
this equation (personal experience = world) dramatically. Now one
can remain at home yet learn of world events through newspapers,
magazines, books, radio, television, and the Internet. A person’s
world reference is now fundamentally influenced by the experiences
related by others (those who communicate through the media). Although
few Americans have actually traveled to Iraq, for example, most
have a set opinion of that country. Many would believe that their
impressions of and opinions about Iraq are comprehensive even though
they are solely based on the observations and experiences of others.
The challenge, of course, is in deciding which external sources
of world information are accurate and trustworthy and which are
biased or limited. Political leaders have learned that a "selective" presentation
of the truth influences public opinion in their favor. Within each
of us there is a compulsive drive to fill this psychological space,
and if the varnished truth is all that is available we will incorporate
this information into our world view.
Travel alters this process. Travel is transformative. Travel replaces
vicarious impressions with experiences gained firsthand. Travel
will rip your eyes from their sockets and force you to see. Travel
will insult, threaten, seduce, and goad. Travel will replace a
virtual world with that which is real. Travel will knead you until
you are prepared to rise.
Several years ago I decided that Fermata must reach beyond what
is comfortable and become immersed in travel and tourism at the
global level. Fermata has always focused on nature, culture, and
history (primarily the former), but we could have easily concentrated
on our backyard interests (Texas) and ignored the larger world.
Such an approach would have been safe, comfortable, and interminably
boring. More critically, the advice we offered our clients would
have been constricted or shallow.
Instead, I decided that we would become travelers ourselves. I
chose to initially concentrate on the United States, and my expressed
goal at that time was to work in all fifty states. In March 2004
I will speak in Sitka, Alaska, and we are approaching the achievement
of the goal. Combined, we have now worked in all but a handful
of the fifty states in the U.S.
More importantly, I decided that I would thrust us into as many
provoking situations as time and budget would allow. Over the past
years we have accepted many jobs either pro bono or at discounted
rates to be able to work in new locations. The investment has paid
off in spades.
In a few weeks, Virginia will leave for an extended trip to Antarctica
with Wilderness Travel. Rob is traveling back to Asia in February.
Mary Jeanne and Clay will be in Arizona for ten days in April;
and Virginia and I will spend two weeks in Iceland this July (with
Caligo Travel). We will return to Australia this fall for the annual
Ecotourism Society of Australia convention. This year's Thanksgiving
trip will be to the llanos of Venezuela. No, we are not running
away or escaping. Rather than running from reality, we are off
in search of it. We are simply looking for the truth.
Fermata is entering a remarkable period in its history. For over
a decade we have invested in developing both an industry as well
as a business. We have sacrificed creature comforts to be able
to gain the experience and skills necessary to offer our clients
a balanced and reliable perspective.
This door is closing. Yet, another opens. I believe that our reach,
our vision, will now allow us to do extraordinary things.
Fermata has been transformed. The results of this transformation
will be electrifying.
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