Travel’s Most Mysterious Gift

04/5/09  Print This Post Print This Post    1 Comment      Written by Tim Patterson
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PhotobucketSalalah, Oman. Photo by Baxter Jackson

The rhetorical disaster of proclaiming war on terror is now becoming clear. The world is full of terror, just as it is filled with beauty and kindness. It can never be exterminated, only borne.

Every traveler knows this – every traveler expects it – because an understanding of our world’s shifting ambiguities is travel’s most mysterious gift.”

-Tom Bissell

from Over There: How America Sees the Rest of the World, a collection of narrative essays published by Granta.


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About the Author

Matador ID: rsw

Tim Patterson is a travel instructor for Where There Be Dragons and a contributing editor to the Matador Network.

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