Thinking like a Professional Tourist:

Is easier said than done. It's actually a bit overwhelming.

I saw a movie tonight about two women each looking for something to do with life and who, in their search, find happiness and purpose within it. I can tell you that this movie was based on a true story, and we can agree that it should inspire me and you to do great things. And yet somehow, every possibility makes us smaller.

Thinking like a Professional Tourist, is just not as easy as it sounds. There are so many somethings to do. We can go anywhere, see anything, meet anyone. So tell me, friend. Where should we start?

Back to Step 1

"I quit my job."

"Again."



Yes, that's right.

Good-bye Reliable income, Social network, and the Reason I get out of bed before 5 o'clock in the afternoon... Hello, Risk that might not be worth taking!

Luckily, when I quit a job I give a 3 month notice. I have no immediate need to search my car and couch cushions for change, but I am starting to think like a Professional Tourist again.

Open Your Eyes!

To shop, and school, to work and play,
The busy people pass all day;
They hurry, hurry, to and fro,
And hardly notice as they go
The wayside flowers, known so well
Whose names so few of them can tell...


O, if these people understood
Whats to be found by field and wood;
What fairy secrets are made plain
By any footpath, road, or lane--
They'd go with open eyes and look
And then at least they'd learn to see
How pretty common things can be!

-Cicely M. Barker

Memorial Day for Peace

On the holiday set aside to remember the nation's war dead, some held a different kind of Memorial Day observance attending peace rallies throughout the city. 

Organizers of the waterfront rally said they wanted to break away from traditional "militaristic" parades and speeches that glorify war and remember not only the 4,082 American troops who have died in the war so far, but the thousands of others whose deaths are attributed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

Protesters dropped bouquets into Boston Harbor for the troubled veterans and carnations for each of the Massachusetts service men and women who died in the conflicts, commemorating Memorial Day by celebrating peace. 

Back to Basics

NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Julie Larios

If I were a kite
with no strings to hold me,
I 'd let the wind take me –
I'd let the crows scold me,
I'd float through the sky
with the sun on my shoulders.
The clouds would all bite
at my ears. I'd be bolder
than bold, I’d dance, I'd go soaring—
a life in the sky could never be boring.

I'd fly over houses then over the tops
of skyscraping buildings
but I wouldn't stop there, I'd sail over sailboats
and islands
and oceans.
I’d drive the world loco with my locomotion.

Diving and squawking,
The seagulls would show me the migrating whales
as they spouted below me.
Over Kansas and Kashmir,
the hot sands of Cairo,
Mt. Fuji, Mt. Everest –
higher and higher—
wheatfields would wave to me,
deserts would sigh.
Icebergs would stare as I rose in the sky.

The sun would be one friend,
the bright moon another.
And what would the stars be
but sisters and brothers?

I'd know all the secrets the sky's never told me
if I were a wild kite
with no strings to hold me.

Who Says Money Doesn't Grow on Trees?

Okay, so these silver dollars aren't exactly going to end the recession, annnd it looks like its going to be longer and more severe than originally thought. But there are indications that the second half of the year will show improvement. President-elect Barack Obama talks about some kind of 'grand bargain' in tax reform, healthcare reform, entitlement reform (including Social Security and Medicare), but says that every American is going to have to sacrifice. "What we have to do is to take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government? What are we getting for it? And how do we make the system more efficient?" Obama said.

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