Making Storytellers

       (Summer, 2014).  First off, a disclaimer.  We aren’t influencers.  We aren't photographers.  We aren’t writers.  We are just a family looking to make the most of a window of opportunity to spend a year outside the comfortable bubble we have all grown to know and love.  We know there will be ups and downs but we are hoping that on the other side, we'll be closer as a family and our kids will be able to go through life with an even better understanding that it's a big ol' world...but it’s only getting smaller.  Embrace it.  

——————————————————————————

If Mr. Battuta (“Ibn” to his close pals) were alive today, he would be the guy who interned for Lonely Planet Guides during college, tried out for a bunch of Survivor-like reality TV shows and eventually hosted a show on the Travel Channel.  Of course, if he were around today we probably couldn’t use his quote as a backdrop for this little site because the words would be Trademarked.  

But Ibn was of another era — a traveler and writer back in the 1300’s.  Back then, if you told your parents “I’m going to spend my life kicking around Africa, Asia and Europe and writing books about it" they thought you were insane (“but son…how are you going to make a living selling books when the world doesn’t even have a printing press yet?”).  

But there is a timeless truism in these words from the pre-Tweet (and pre-Gutenberg) era.  He didn’t say that travel makes you into “an observer” or “a journalist.”  He said it makes you into “a storyteller.”  

The idea behind this family sabbatical (of sorts) isn’t to go on a year-long vacation.  It isn’t about being a tourist or observer.  It isn’t about collecting anecdotes that the kids can reminisce about over beers someday (although that will be kinda cool).  It’s about getting outside the uber-familiar bit of the world that we know so well.  It’s about taking the TIME to experience something new.  

     It’s about recognizing that every person, every culture, every language, and every experience has a story to tell us.  If we slow down and listen, these stories broaden our worldview.  They influence who we are.  They influence who we become.  And they influence the story that we tell the world through the lives that we live.