BootsnAll Travel Network



Finding The Heart Of Each Day

Before I began backpacking, in 2002 after retirement as a lobbyist, administrator and educator, and with my three boys grown and out of the house, a friend asked me to “report back to those at home what travel reveals about the human heart and what we have become in this world. To look beneath the surface of things to the heart of each day. Is God alive? Does hope exist? Are people still falling in love? Is everyone buying death as if it were cheap socks at a smoke sale?" I take this on. I look for clarity. I look for signs of courage…of strength of conviction rooted in heart…in an authentic identity, in myself as well as in others. I look for cheap socks…and death for sale. I have found it all. However, I am now an expat living in Oaxaca Mexico...again finding both sorrow and joy. This blog is intending to keep friends, family and any other inquiring minds apprised of my whereabouts, goings-on, world-watching and idle thoughts. You are welcome to leave comments or email me at laughingnomad@mac.com.

“Shantaram”

May 10th, 2009

A book by an Australian escaped convict who went to India and lived in the slums.  Inside picture of how slum-dwellers organize themselves in the absence of government assistance. VERY good so far!

May 26 Update

OMG, probably the best novelized memoir I have ever read!  The author gets mixed up with the Indian mafia and helps smuggle arms and equipment to the mujahadeen fighting the Russians in Afghanistan.  Over 900 pages long. But the best part is reading about the Indians…Shantaram really tries to get into their heads…and hearts.

Just one of Shantaram’s insights:

“Love is a one-way street.
Love, like respect, isn’t something you get;
It’s something you give.”

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