People
What will this planet be without that singular species at the top of the evolutionary pyramid? People – caring, creative, and co-operative as well as aggrandizing, avaricious, entitled and demanding – they are its very essence. They may be destroying the rich tapestry of our lonely planet with their single-minded pursuit of material well-being, but they are also its hope. Innovative, industrious, imaginative, only people can rescue this planet from the impending crisis that is their own creation.
The primary joy of travel is getting acquainted with people – in their natural habitat. By their sheer variety, range of perspectives, canvases of creativity and kaleidoscope of cultures, it is people who bring our beautiful planet alive…. Come, meet some of them.
Dear Sudha Mahalingam
I am sorry to trouble you in your busy schedule, but this is the first time I am writing to you.
This morning I read your article in my regular mail from Atlas Obscura and I was very interested.
I have had the opportunity to travel the world (I have not been able to circumnavigate the world or visit all the continents) in small to medium size sailboats over the past 30 years and have visited many different parts of the world from the sea. Earlier, when I was a much younger man, I have been to Europe and North America USA too, although only a little.
I am now in my 70s, and after the Corona Disaster, I have retired from sailboating due to lack of exercise, weight gain, and the inability to cope physically and perhaps mentally with the various conditions of the voyage.
However, I was depressed and confined to my house in Tokyo every day without doing anything.
I was fed up with the life of being cooped up in my house in Tokyo.
I am going to read your blog and hope that I will be able to do the same. I would like to travel abroad again to experience new cultures, people, and history, which I have put to the back of my mind, and this time I would like to see the world from the air and land.
My best regards,
Sumio Oya