I met* one of my heroes this week.
The hero was Phil Rosenthal, a man I love for Netflix’s ‘Somebody Feed Phil’, a yummy global travel show.
He’s an infectiously upbeat guy.
He evangelises that happiness can be found in the small things, but particularly in TRAVEL. And FOOD.
I couldn’t agree more. Those things are AWESOME!
Except, in recent years, I’ve come to understand (perhaps through reading The Guardian too much) that travel (specifically flying) and food (specifically meat) are among many joys that can actually impact our world in ways that… well… aren’t so awesome.
So…
I try to fly less.
I changed to a pescatarian diet.
I limit my purchases of new stuff.
Things like that.
My hero, though, says that happiness can be found in abundance in some of the very things I’m trying to cut back on.
And he’s darned right!
As someone who travelled a lot in my early 20’s, I can vouch for the fact that it’s unbeatable. And delicious.
I’d love for my son and daughter to be able to travel extensively.
But… Greta.
Right?
What would Phil say to Greta?
(Beside telling her a wonderful joke, as he does.)
I imagine he’d say (in a funnier way) that the mind-opening and culture-swapping benefits of travel are significant.
He’d agree, I’m sure, that air travel is a luxury; one that should be appreciated as such.
Perhaps he’d say that we should travel to places that really mean something to us, for reasons that matter.
I kind of wish he could give us all a free pass to roam the world and have unlimited fun… But Greta definitely has science on her side; flying ain’t great.
The point, I guess, is that it’s about balance.
And it’s about enjoying what we can while being conscious of our impact.
Phil’s lesson isn’t that global travel is the ONLY path to happiness. Or that ONLY beef / pork / chicken = yum.
He says it’s about finding joy in the little things.
And we can do that wherever we find ourselves, and whatever we do.
Thanks Phil. My hero.
* …I say “met”. I sat in the back row of the upper circle. Close enough.
