Terry Traveller Series – Ballenese

I know, I know, Terry was missing last Sunday. When Terry sends in articles by carrier pigeon, things aren’t always pretty – Editor

I often hear from readers that I write as though the entire world is listening, or alternatively, that I write to amuse myself alone.

I admit that both are true: my goal is to reach a wide audience of readers and share with them the wonders of the world as they have yet to experience for themselves.

Since so few have witnessed what I share, it must be only for my own gratification that I include such personal callbacks and inside jokes none will ever experience outside my head.

This is due to an ancient eastern philosophy you may as well attribute with Bali, though I learned it from a modern day Englishman in a sci-fi book written in 1923. The Balinese people believe in one thing three ways: harmony (or balance) among people, with nature, and with the higher power.

This extends to the idea that Bali is the center of the universe, and the soul the center of the personal universe.  As long as you know where you are, and you know where your towel is, you can find your balance.

To a Western mind this may seem silly. A bunch of guys with beards verified century after century that the earth travels around the sun, and the sun is the center of the universe, and that our universe is on the less scenic spiral arm of the galactic map. It may also seem hypocritical, as Bali still has crime, famine, what we would consider incredible inequality among the sexes, drunk driving fatalities, and littering.

But science, politics, and philosophy are various world views- not proofs to be used to verify one over the other. And besides, if someone had actually figured out a utopian society, we would have exploited it by now.

For me, there are too many cultures and sub cultures in the world to verify any of them as stone cold truth. That isn’t to say that none of them are I simply mean that the concept is too complex for my human brain to make sense of.

What is true in Nepal isn’t true in San Diego. And what is true in Dallas County may seem absurd in Warren County. So instead, I pick and choose my philosophies like vitamins and minerals- I take an extra dose of Iron when I need it, Vitamin C when the seasons change, Fish Oil because someone told me I should.

I travel to see what’s happening across the big blue marble and share my experiences to help digest them. The jokes are the sugar to help the medicine go down, and perhaps a bit of Western pride in that I think I’m a pretty funny cat, if I do say so myself.

– Terry

Terry Traveller
Email: terry@discoveradel.com
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