“I haven’t been everywhere, but it’s on my list.”
~ Susan Sontag ~
Newark, NJ
In the 1602 play by William Shakespeare titled, “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” the notorious character Sir John Falstaff refuses to give the hypocritical, petty criminal, Pistol, any money. The thief responds, “The world is my oyster!” Technically, he said, ‘The world’s mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” Old English transcribed to a modern day prose gives the same meaning: A world of opportunity and wealth is yours for the taking. Go get some!
Okay, so what does Shakespeare have to do with travel you may be asking yourself? Fair question. Specifically, “The World is Your Oyster” paradigm has everything to do with travel. The abundance of affordable airfares is off the charts these days. You can fly round trip from NYC to London in December for $494. The proliferation of cheap(er) airfare tickets has brought the world to your front door. Since the turn of the century, global travel has increased from 670 million visitors to 1.62 billion as of 2025.
Young adults don’t just take a summer holiday at the Jersey Shore each year. They travel to Japan and the Maldives and then stop in Munich on the way home for Octoberfest. Geez… I remember getting into the family station wagon as a wee lad and jet set to Narragansett, RI. Camping was the modus operandi of the era and we did of lot of it. Everything from fishing, clam digging and bike riding was on the agenda. I also remember sitting in the tent at night listening to the radio as the New York Yankees did battle with the dark empire… the Boston Red Sox (you can reverse this if you like!). I think times have changed in a larger-than-life way and travel destinations and methods of transportation have expanded. I don’t think Charles Lindbergh realized crossing the Atlantic in 1927 would forever change the landscape of world travel.
As we age, the commodity of time becomes more precious. A simple fact of life. The less we have of something, the more valuable it becomes. Time is one such commodity… you might say, it’s worth more than gold, silver & oil combined.
When we were young, the clock didn’t move fast enough. Our 10th grade math class was never going to end. The start of a new ski season couldn’t arrive quick enough. Even the thought of freedom; obtaining a driving permit at the age of 16, was a dream too far in the future.
Today, the opposite is true. I can’t slow down the hands of time. Everything is moving on fast forward and getting off the merry-go-round of life is an unsolved puzzle. Weeks become months and months turn into years. Eventually a decade or two are in the rearview mirror and we can only wonder where the time went? If the cliche, “60 is the new 40” is real… and Lord I hope so… I may have more time than I realize. Until medical science proves this theory valid though, the clock is ticking.
Nice, France