Prisoner of Hopes

Category: Perspectives

  • Don’t Overstay Your Welcome: Travel Goals

    I was always taught not to overstay your welcome. This colloquial saying communicates that you should always leave before your host tires of your presence. I generally like having company, but it is hard for people with different schedules and routines to coexist. In a campground, a diverse group of people are living in a…

  • Give a Hoot: Travel Goals

    Encounters in nature are calming and peaceful. Sayings like ‘leave only footprints, take only pictures and kill nothing but time’, remind us that our wild spaces should be protected. Every outdoor enthusiast seems to understand the gift and works hard to protect and preserve natural spaces. Unfortunately, there are others that are not so in…

  • Can You Help?: Travel Goals

    When we signed up to be a campground host, I wasn’t fully aware that part of the job would be managing crisis. I should have expected it, but mostly I thought about cheerfully sharing camping stories and answering guest questions. I guess it is a good thing that I have decades of prior experience as…

  • Campground Host: Travel Goals

    This month, instead of a grand overseas adventure, we decided to see what it would be like to serve as a campground host in a Missouri State Park. I love to camp and I love the woods, but will I still be in love at the end of the month? My morning ritual is to…

  • And Still The River Rolls

    But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! Amos 5:28 Today, I am standing on a bank of a river contemplating life. The river is peaceful and in the early morning light the only thing stirring is deer. It would be easy to forget every care . I am thankful…

  • Train Travel in America: Travel Goals

    All over the world, we travel on trains. Generally speaking, we find trains relaxing, efficient and easy to navigate. In fact, I am an advocate for expanding train services. They provide valuable public transport and reduce car and air traffic pollution. Safe, affordable, and environmentally friendly transportation should be a national priority in my book.…

  • I don’t want to be pretty

    I don’t want to be pretty, but of course I do. I don’t want to be just a winner of the genetic lottery, and ornamentally pleasing. I mean that must be nice, and I certainly don’t want people to think I am ugly. But I would rather be stylish and interesting. If you think that…

  • The currency of currency: Travel Goals

    Currency: the quality of being generally accepted or in use. The U.S. dollar (and also the Euro), as we were to find out, is the ultimate currency. ..at least in South America. After arrival in any country, one of first stops we make is a bank or currency exchange. In recent years it has become…

  • Unexpected Encounters: Travel Goals

    When I was a teenager, I went to the science center IMAX. There, on the giant screen, I experienced scenes from the Andes and heard about a plane crash that left people stranded for 72 days. Through footage of the wreckage, I imagined the horrors of trying to survive on the side of a mountain…

  • Cruise culture: Travel Goals

    We said we would never cruise, and yet I found myself on a Holland America ship for thirty five days in order to sail around South America. My hesitation for cruise travel had nothing to do with the ship, the sea, the time, or the money. I dreaded the people. I didn’t want to feel…