Travel is about more than seeing things

It's about growth and opening our minds to what lies beyond our usual experience

It’s travel season, but if you’re heading out, consider how you might travel thoughtfully.

About this time every year when I was a kid, my family hit the road for a couple of weeks. My dad hadn’t ventured beyond his home state of Indiana until after college, when he and my mother honeymooned for a couple of days in Michigan. Maybe that explains his restlessness by the time I showed up, when he was in his mid-30s. Whatever the cause, he was eager in vacation season to put a few hundred miles between where we climbed out of bed and where we tucked in. That’s how I learned to travel, and why I’ve visited 48 states and five continents.

A lot of Americans seem similarly ready to roll this summer — on roads and rails, by air and sea — surely because we’re so relieved to be emerging from the most acute of COVID-19 fears. With a majority of adult Americans now vaccinated, there’s rising enthusiasm for getting away: Three-quarters of Americans have 2021 travel plans, according to a new survey, u…