If you are lucky enough to have “just a little” leftover cash after paying rent and bills and loans and all those things we each struggle with on a daily basis, I think the best thing you can do with it is put it in a special account designated for nothing other than travel (barring any emergencies, of course).
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Not only are there exciting places in our own backyards — in the last two weeks I’ve seen everything from bears while hiking in the Cascades to Dahl’s porpoise, Harbor Seals, River otters, and diving Kingfishers while sailing around San Juan Island — but there are those incredible, exotic places we all dream of going where the people, the land, and the animals seem as if they’re straight from some kind of fairy tale.
But these places are not fairy tales — nor are they pipe dreams for people whose salaries don’t quite cut the mustard. Even if it takes years of saving $20 per paycheck, it is possible to create a ‘dream travel’ fund to get you where you want to go. This is why it drives me crazy when people say that zoos or circuses are important because they give people the chance to see animals they wouldn’t otherwise see. Well, I say no one’s stopping you so why don’t you put forth the effort and go to where the animals are — wild and natural — instead?
How about putting those zoo and aquarium entrance fees you would have paid into a travel savings account and get yourself to Africa or Asia? If it’s so important to see these animals and to learn about them, there is no better way to do it than to go to them. We do not have a right to snatch these animals from the wild and stick them in a pretty little box, so that we can stare at them while they contemplate the loss of everything that is natural and normal to them. Unless it’s in its natural habitat, you’re only seeing a shell of an animal anyway.
People talk about education and conservation but when it comes down to it there’s nothing more you can do to support both of these — whether for wildlife, ecosystems, native people, etc. — than to go there and do it. Anything less is a shortcut that does nothing for anyone. All it does is veil the truth of the matter. I have worked on behalf of wildlife and conservation for a large portion of my professional life and it wasn’t a trip to the zoo or circus that inspired me. It was the belief that things are as they were meant to be and we should be respectful stewards of that, not exploiters.
All that said, have a wonderful month. I am off to Kenya!!
Blogging off,
Zibby