What in the world…

As I walked by the hordes of people in Times Square tonight, it occurred to me how much I don’t know about the world’s inhabitants. Tourists from every corner of the planet had converged on Broadway and 42 Street to take photos commemorating their visits, stare in awe at the billboards, go to the theatre, chomp on New York’s finest –or foulest–franks, and do whatever it is tourists do when they’re in the greatest city ever.

Who are all these people? What do they think about? How do they live?  What do they do  to help make the world go round?

I am sorry I don’t travel more. I did a lot more of it when I was younger, and loved every minute,  but I have let other things get in the way during the last 10 years. Travel teaches you about the world and its people the way books and movies can’t. Travel is invigorating. Travel gives you new perspectives.

I am going to try to start traveling again. I cannot continue to let the years slip by without making my world larger by seeing the worlds of others.

P.S. I was in Times Square tonight because FOF sister, Shelley, and brother-in-law, Russ, took me to see Tony award-winning play The Normal Heart. If you don’t know, it’s about the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s, when no one in high places wanted to acknowledge this insidious disease because it was primarily infecting gay men. The play is a bit long, but the acting is spectacular, especially by Ellen Barkin and Joe Mantello.