Art Frommer-- Budget Travel

Arthur Frommer was born in 1929 and became world famous as a travel writer-- Europe on $5 a Day.  He is still around though is no longer regularly contributing to his blog.  The last post I find is following the George Floyd killing:  A Statement from Arthur Frommer on #BlackLivesMatter and Racial Discrimination | Frommer's  The blog is in good hands with his daughter Pauline.

There are two approaches to travel.  We can spend lavishly on rooms, have people deliver drinks to us and relax on the beach.  We can hit the museums, natural wonders and coffee shops and eat and drink with the locals.  Though some combination of approach a and approach b does not offend me, and down time should be planned as part of our vacations, I consistently choose Art Frommer's approach.  My primary goal of traveling is to learn.

In 2005, I decided to sell my house and see the world, starting with a three month visit to Asia.  Art Frommer's blog was my tour guide.  I went to a Berkeley travel agent and bought a three month Cathay Pacific All-Asia air pass.  I could travel by air on a highly rated airline as much as I wanted during this time.  The only catch was that all flights were through Hong Kong and visas were extra.  I weighed whether to go to Pakistan deciding a $200 visa was not justifiable given that I didn't have a good plan for what to do in Pakistan.  This air package still exists.  Today, you can only buy it in Japan, however.

I blogged about this trip.  Here is the entry about the World Fair I stumbled across- https://davetravels.blogspot.com/2005/05/expo-2005.html

I spent money on our honeymoon trip, Fall 2006, to Florence, Cortona, and Paris. because I didn't want the mundane day to day of budget travel to distract.  Call it insecurity.  After that, we followed the Frommer playbook and typically used their recommended deals to visit Australia, Russia, Paris, Iceland, Ireland, China, Shanghai, Hawaii and Alaska as well as our own continent.

If you read the June, 2020 blog post by Art Frommer, you will find it is political.  How a person travels is indeed a political choice.  One either views the world as a purchase or as a place you can more broadly join.

Walking Down the Street

 Over the past fifteen years, it has not been unusual for me the walk down my residential street with flyers that I drop off at each house and apartment.  What do you suppose is the reaction to this?

The reaction, at first, was that I could see people moving away.  The next neighbor over would suddenly go from their lawn care activity to inside the house.  The person in the car would rush to the house.  The people inside the house would turn off the light.  People reacted appropriately to the threat.  They assumed I was trying to change their religion and wouldn't go away when when requested.

The reaction Wednesday was different.  It is a sunny winter day with snow on the ground.  Some are outside enjoying relative warmth.   I approach a house.  I slide a flyer inside the door.  I walk away.  The door opens.  A man reads the flyer and asks questions.  "Where is this planned?"  

"Just across the street from us and next to the apartment building going up.  It will adjoin the church parking lot."  

"It would be nice if they put something there.  No one likes an undeveloped area.  Playground equipment would also be nice."

"Email the people on the flyer and they will invite you to the meeting in a couple of weeks."

Up and down the street, instead of fleeing us (it is a pandemic), people walk toward us and tell us their opinions.  All are in support of development.  All prefer someone in charge of the area rather than continued neglect of the vacant lot.

We walk to the corner where the apartment caretaker is often having a cigarette or drinking a beer.  A man we don't recognize takes our last flyer.  "You should post another flyer downstairs through that back entrance," he says. 

Democracy can work in the United States.  The key is that people listen to people. In person works best.

On Coaching

 My father defined success as being a "coach".  I assume he meant a high profile college coach such as Bobby Knight, Hayden Fry or Woody Hayes.  I'm not sure whether he admired the role of coach based on the high profile, high salary, the responsibilities or something completely different.    "When you grow up, you should be a coach" is all I heard.  The "what" and the "why" of coaching was not communicated.

Being told what you should do maybe effective communication in some situations for some people.  My wife is ISTJ in Myers-Briggs personality type.  I regularly hear "just tell me what" from her.  She is not always interested in hearing my logic in detail.

The key question I want answered as a Myers-Briggs INTP is "why".  Why is it that I would enjoy or be successful at coaching?  My father was a school teacher.  Maybe, a really successful school teacher is successful at coaching?  Maybe, there is pride in having a really successful student?  My father did enjoy talking about students toward the beginning of his career who were highly successful.  From listening to my father talk, however, you would conclude the success of these students was preordained based on skills and abilities that they brought with them to his eighth grade class.  He never took credit for anyone's success at nuclear physics.

My father failed if he wanted me to become a coach (as he defined the term).  To convince me, he would have needed to communicate a "why" in addition to a "what".  Leadership and coaching involves communicating "whats" and "whys".  That may explain why having a good mission statement is important.  Is my goal "to win at all costs" like some of those coaches from the 1970s that I mentioned?  Is my goal something else?