Try it sometime. Highs and Lows Highs and low define the perimeters of world travel; from the physical heights of Mount Kilimanjaro (19,028 feet) to the lows of the Dead Sea (-1,085 feet) - the lowest point in the world. Emotional highs and lows: the exhilaration and majesty of desolate Antarctica to the despair and desperation of Cape Town's black townships.

And metaphysical boundries get tested: from The Fall off a bridge at Victoria Falls, to the descent into the fecundity and femininity of the deep oceans, to the salting and cleansing of the Dead Sea; many psychic forces get stirred.

I learned about myself all along the way. I learned that I am an anal retentive type-A. (Though anyone who met me saw that in about three minutes.) I learned that I am intelligent, irreverantly funny, insightful, optimistic, and generous. I learned that I am insecure, naive, childish, pessimistic and selfish too. I learned that I love to read poetry; listen to (and sing) opera; write nonsensical travel articles, sleep-in whenever possible, and eat Big Mac meals. In the end, I learned that I still have a lot to learn.

Socrates said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." Little did I realize how little time for contemplation remained in my NYC/Wall Street/Palm Pilot/cell phone infused 'life.' Smelling the coffee a Sunday at a time or two weeks of vacation in a stretch stopped working for me.

Fortunately, I recognized the slow death of ossification for me and departed for something else. That is not to cast aspersions on those who covet, choose, and remain in this kind of life. It's true that one man's meat is anothers poison. We much each walk our own path.