All the places I've been
I just had my big 39 birthday. I'm about to have my first child. I feel so old and young at the same time. That is I feel young but I'm old. Coincidentally, I just discovered this cool little utility on facebook (thanks to Spelt, who really is out of his league on scrabulous), and it's something I've wanted to do for a while: catalog all the cities I've gone to (and rank them!). It's pretty cool. I've been to probably more than 100 different cities in 39 years, most of them in the past 15 years! I know a lot of people travel: in the global scheme of things this isn't all that impressive of a portfolio: Europe, North America, AK, HI and Australia. Still, I'm very fortunate considering where I've come from (i.e., the Rubber Capital of the World).
I wonder if I had a more affluent childhood if I would still appreciate all I've gotten to experience: more likely I would take it for granted, or worse, take it as being owed to me. A part of me wants to restrict my children in some way...show them what a hard life is like so when they grow up and be successful, they will appreciate what they have more. But I think that is small-minded: dissatisfaction with the status quo is how evolution drives humans to advance. If things work out well, children will start at a better place than their parents. They WILL take that starting place for granted, and if they don't improve on it even further, they WILL be unsatisfied.
You might think it's sad: with offspring after offspring being more and more successful, surely sooner or later we will reach a point of diminishing returns, eventually being unable to progress and left unsatisfied indefinitely. This logic assumes a limit exists to how far we can progress. In the worst case, even if such a limit were to temporarily arise, in a dynamic and chaotic universe, something will happen to shake us up and give us a new mission. In the best case: no limit.
Denver's Top Ten List:
I wonder if I had a more affluent childhood if I would still appreciate all I've gotten to experience: more likely I would take it for granted, or worse, take it as being owed to me. A part of me wants to restrict my children in some way...show them what a hard life is like so when they grow up and be successful, they will appreciate what they have more. But I think that is small-minded: dissatisfaction with the status quo is how evolution drives humans to advance. If things work out well, children will start at a better place than their parents. They WILL take that starting place for granted, and if they don't improve on it even further, they WILL be unsatisfied.
You might think it's sad: with offspring after offspring being more and more successful, surely sooner or later we will reach a point of diminishing returns, eventually being unable to progress and left unsatisfied indefinitely. This logic assumes a limit exists to how far we can progress. In the worst case, even if such a limit were to temporarily arise, in a dynamic and chaotic universe, something will happen to shake us up and give us a new mission. In the best case: no limit.
Denver's Top Ten List:
- New York City, NY, USA
- London, England
- Paris, France
- Cairns, Australia
- Rome, Italy
- Barcelona, Spain
- Florence, Italy
- Kailua-Kona, HI, USA
- Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Create your own travel map or travel blog
- Visit TripAdvisor.com