Mark Twain On Travel

As a huge promoter of travel, I find this illustrated Mark Twain quote on travel fully explains the elimination of “prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness” that we all deserve.

Why Travel?  In my opinion, I shouldn’t have to explain.  Not only does it open our minds, but gives us soul and personality.  Our minds take in so much information every minute.  Contradicting this last statement – we see similar things every day, especially in the Tri-state area.  So why not travel?  Why not simply take a trip as short as driving to eastern PA or Upstate NY?  The more information our brains take in on culture, the better.

You might hate it and you might love it, but I know it’s certain that your travels will only develop your person so much more.  Travel gives us something to relate to, talk about, and a sense of adventurism.

Why do I travel?  To find out why people do the things they do.

As cliché as it sounds, I love that feeling of the unknown.  Making last minute decisions on pretty important issues is my contemporary “Goonies” scenario.  I usually develop Cranky Baby Syndrome if I’m not able to travel for a while.

Ultimate traveler and naturalist Cody Lundin poses for his own blog photo.  “The more you know, The less you need”.  He travels the wild barefoot, not having worn shoes since the 1980’s.

I find the idea of illustrating these monumental quotes as super helpful.  It seems as if reading simple humor or satire while determining the deeper ties to theory and thought – as Mark Twain’s style conveys – is becoming increasingly difficult as we move further and further from that era.  The bright colors of Than’s work captures the eye and aids us in finding the reason these words were written.

The illustrator’s (Gavin Aung Than) passion lies fully in cartooning and illustration.  With a background in graphic design, Than has over 400 published comic strips including two long-running pieces.  From simply visiting his website after I found this strip, I found a compilation of comics running from quote illustrations like this one to traditional published newspaper strips.

In between it all he expresses situations dealing with relationships, sporting and political events, globalization, society and the all-relatable stresses of human life.  The characters range from a huge medium of personalities and forms including monsters, superheroes, and of course human-toons.

Than’s Website: http://gavinaungthan.com/