“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” – Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

And by “Loving the Madness” I’m not talking about March Madness.  Although a great time of the year, I was referring to to the unexpected. The unknown. A feeling that not many might not be comfortable with.

While definitely a strong message, in today’s world the quote that I have posted above is not so easy in practice. I do believe that the world is more of a friendly place than we may think but the very median (a.k.a the internets) I use to show my photos has allowed information to flow more freely, more quickly.  We tend to authenticate by posts or feeds rather than going to see for ourselves or having a conversation with our neighbors. We tend to be scared of the things that we don’t understand.

At a minimum I’ve always imagined this site to be something I, and my wife, can look back upon when we are older.  I can only hope that I will still be able to take hiking trips, or bomb down a Colorado mountain with a snowboard strapped to my feet or at least, still able to play soccer. I know one day those things will end and there will be new experiences to be had with the slow slow…slow life.

But with all the time spent and experiences, I also hope that by taking so many pictures I can inspire people to visit those places and have discoveries on their own. You remember that feeling of the unknown…? Sometimes going out and having experiences that push your limits is a good thing. It will make you discover traits about yourself that you may never would have known otherwise. In particular for me, that can be definitely related to the first time I traveled to Africa solo. I’d been before to East Africa, but several years ago, I took a trip to Morocco. I decided to stay within the Medina, a common area within the city often surrounded by walls – and not because there is any threat now but rather hundreds of years ago when that sort of thing was actually a problem.  Arriving in Marrakech by train, the trip wasn’t going as planned. My cell phone wouldn’t receive a signal for whatever reason and I was running late.  I was supposed to get ahold of my airbnb host when I arrived so we could meet and walk together to the airbnb location. I wasn’t able to call her. Thankfully, I had the location of where we were supposed to meet – a cafe near the bus stop right in front of the medina. I walked in and almost immediately one of the waiters greeted me as I apparently was looking frantic. In this broken english he tried to ask me if I were here to meet someone and he mentioned her name. I was unsure. He motioned for me to follow him and led me to a pay phone where he proceeded to dial a number and immediately gave me the phone. “Is this Brian”, the person on the other end of the line asked. I said yes, and the women told me she was waiting for me for almost an hour. I felt terrible, I immediately apologized for making her wait…but at the same time a bit relieved. She said to hold tight for 15 minutes and that she would come back to meet me. I kept expressing thanks and apologizing.  After hanging up I found a table and the same waiter returned in hand with some Moroccan tea.  I know sometimes there could be cases where this situation could have gone in many different directions but it didn’t…I was glad. The waiter didnt even charge me for the tea as I sipped on waiting for my host to arrive. 

You will also see a ton of pictures from Japan on this website. I was fortunate to spend almost two years living here work. It’s been almost 10yrs since I came back and I wish I had spent more time there and more time documenting my experience.  Whether it was spending all day pondering quirky Japanese culture in the morning on the way to work, or staying in a Ryokan and having the best meal of your life I enjoyed every bit. It was one of those experiences that I will usually end up with “you just have to go there and experience it for yourself” at the end of a conversation.