The American Travel Cringe

Since the first time I found myself staring up into a skyful of stars I didn't recognize, I have adored Australia. There is something about it that makes you want to just roll around, revelling in the spirit of the place. After my first visit, I became a minor student of Australian culture. Not so much the Fosters-and-INXS kind of export culture, but the beetroot-on-burger kind. And stumbled upon the Australian Cultural Cringe. It certainly explained why Australia, despite all reasons why it should be so, was not yet the center of the universe. But then again, I'm an American. A nation that prides itself on knowing more about everything than anyone, but still supports the following embarassing statistics:

• Only 27 percent of American adults hold a valid passport
• 25 percent of American adults have never left the U.S.
• Only 36 percent have visited more than two countries
• Only 42 percent of Americans have ever held a U.S. passport

You want cringe? *That* is material for cringing. The American Travel Cringe. My pal Isabel is not a product of America, directly, having been raised in Turkey, and then ports, well, everywhere. She's utterly fearless. Her blog about packing up and walking the Camino de Santiago with her cat Arthur is linked to on the right nav. I tell bits of her story to people, and they freak. Spain? A woman? Alone? With a cat??? The logistics freak them out. The very notion that it's an utterly doable thing, even if she did sidetrack into other fabulous adventures, is ungraspable for a lot of people. I'm finally getting around to getting Kestrel's birth certificate, only because I need to get his passport, since he's over six months old and therefore needs one now, to get out of here should we be stricken by wanderlust. I was mentioning this to a work acquaintance the other day, and they were flabbergasted. The mere idea of a passport for a baby was so... unusual. But then again, this adult I was speaking to didn't have one. Hadn't ever left the country, and so hadn't ever needed one. How bizarre and insular is that? We live within one border, we speak one language, we eat one hideous diet, we watch one television, and we think that's The World. And now who's cringing?