Reply to Can you be friends with people who don't travel?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wouldn't say I "rule them out" - but I find that most people who don't leave this country are pretty ignorant about things that go on in this world.  They will spend thousands of dollars on "organic" (yes, that is meaning to mock") mac N cheese powdered process cheese a year, while there are children who go without clean water.  There are arguments every day on DCUM about how there are the "harms" of battery powered flashing toys - when some children play with sticks and rocks.

It's hard to be friends with people who have so much and take so much for granted every day and choose to be ignorant to the world around them.  I have a lot and am greatful for it, but I think it is my job to teach my daughter that she has a greater duty to this world.  That there are people with less - and I don't mean people with food stamps who get to eat - I mean people who walk 10 miles a day to fill a bucket of clean water for their children to drink.

THAT is what I can't be friends with people who don't invest in the world around them.  Because they don't invest in me.[/quote]

You are entitled to your thoughts.  I guess what I'm confused by is the unnecessary logical leap.  That someone hasn't travelled widely could be an extension of a narrow worldview, or something else entirely.  So, why not just cross off from your list of potential friends people with a narrow worldview, rather than people who don't travel internationally?

For what it's worth, I grew up abroad in several countries, have travelled extensively both as a child and adult, but now that I have a toddler, most of our vacations in the past year and the next couple of years will be domestic, and mostly likely something on the beach, probably at a family lake house or a resort.  Not sure what that says about me other than that my parents used to have a job that placed them in many countries, I had very generous boyfriends, my husband and I used to work a lot so too big trips to compensate when we took vacations, and now we like to spend our days off in controlled surroundings given the craziness of toddlers.  The fact that I've been to many third world and first world countries, and lived in big cosmopolitan cities and desert countries, don't at all reveal how "worldly" I am.  In fact, I'm probably more narrow-minded than the usual DC gave-up-private-sector-salary-for-public-service liberal from the Midwest who hasn't set foot outside the US.  I actually don't care much about kids in slum who play with sticks and stones.  Seen them firsthand, lived like a queen in such countries while growing up, but really couldn't care less about them.

So, there you go.  I probably would make your list of potential friends based on the stamps in my passport, but I'm probably the narrow-minded person you want to avoid.[/quote]

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