Travel not to relax in ease but to understand the harsh brutality that exists in far more places than the cushy safety of many western cultures. ~Chad Howse

Life is brutal. When you get a semblance of this understanding, you understand the value of a dollar, you understand the necessity of life and death and what it takes to survive.

Take veganism. It’s a new development among our species because we can. We can depend on supplements to aid our diet. We don’t have to hunt to kill our food.

It’s a nice idea, but not if you don’t have access to the supplements that fulfill what a vegan diet can’t give on its own. In most parts of the planet you have to kill your food to gain nutrients like protein, dietary fats, and B vitamins that are found in meat.

Take work.

In most parts of the world, welfare isn’t a thing. People need to work to survive. There is no safety net. Yet, some people here in the west are actually comfortable with taking money they haven’t earned for their entire lives. Others complain about their jobs. They end each day thankful that the work day is over never realizing that people all over the world would KILL to be paid to work.

Take rest.

Many, many people on this planet don’t have the luxury of ‘relaxing’. Ease doesn’t enter their life. They work only to come home to work at being a parent or preparing food. Vacations don’t happen in their lives. Whatever they’re going through they have to deal with, they can’t avoid anything.

Travel is wonderful, not simply to ‘get away’, but to see what life’s actually like for far more people than those of us who are able to travel.

Appreciate what you have. Appreciate the harshness of life. You’ll find it’s brutality among humans and in nature among animals. It really is a dog eat dog world a lot of the time. Be tough enough to win. Travel to see and learn what that toughness actually looks like.