Travel writer Daniel Scheffler’s podcast, Everywhere, invites the listener to have an adventure wherever they are: at home or away, wealthy or not, solo or with a group. This week’s “travel commandment,” as Daniel calls it, “Thou Shalt Be Generous,” finds Daniel talking with Stuff You Missed in History Class host Holly Frey, as well as his “brother from another mother, from another world” Van Nolintha, about the beautiful benefits of generosity. They discuss examples of generous behavior that have stuck with them over time, including an alms-giving ceremony in Luang Prabang, Laos, protective rugby players in Capetown, South Africa, Jackie Kennedy’s Egyptian temple, and more.
For Daniel, being generous has made traveling the world a more fulfilling and joyous experience. He meets people and does things that tourists, more focused on themselves or on monuments, would never get a chance to do. So his generosity actually ends up gaining him more than he gives. For an example, he tells a story about feeding a pack of stray dogs in Cairo. He bought a pile of food from a chicken vendor and was having trouble opening the styrofoam containers when a group of students, sitting nearby, came over to help. “And the dogs were playing and mistaking our fingers for chicken breasts and suddenly, the students and I had this thing in common,” he says. “We had broken through awkwardness and cultural difference and suddenly I had stopped being the ‘other,’ and so had they.” Because he fed the dogs, he received friendship and acceptance. He also met several cab drivers who usually shared their sandwiches with the strays, and they invited him to their home to meet their grandmother and have a home-cooked meal. “When you ask me what's the best thing I did in Egypt, it was feeding the stray dogs, not going to the pyramids.”
Daniel learned the value of generous living not only through his travels, but also when he visited Luang Prabang and experienced the alms-giving ceremony there. Every morning, the people of Luang Prabang get up at sunrise to offer rice to Buddhist monks in exchange for wisdom. Daniel has participated in this ceremony, and so has his friend Van. “I think there's something really special about that tradition. About...marking that day a sacred day,” Van says. He agrees with Daniel that tourist attractions are sometimes overrated when it comes to traveling. “I love going to places that [don’t] have a big monument...when we show up to just be...I think we are a lot more in sync with our own heart and our own life and our own rhythm....those places ask me to show up in a different manner.”
Daniel asks Van how to share this culture of generosity with listeners who perhaps can’t drop everything and fly to Laos or Cairo. “I think you need to be able to apply this principle even when you go to New Jersey or Disney World or wherever you’re going,” he says.
“I think when we are at home, we have our own rhythms and rituals and ceremonies that we subscribe to...and I think when we travel...we are more mindful of the things we do...so much of it is about being mindful of your own place in the world...of what’s happening around you,” Van replies. “And I think if we can develop...that kind of awakeness...we can travel anywhere, even within our own home and our own neighborhood and we can see our neighbors as if we are seeing them for the first time. And perhaps we see all of their humanities too.”
So wherever you are, wherever you’re going, “think of a small act of generosity, something that takes very little to execute,” Daniel says. “It doesn’t have to be money. Share what you have with others, and just see how that feels.” In Daniel’s experience, you’ll end up with much more than you had before.
Listen to this episode of Everywhere to hear more travel stories -- including the first trip Daniel ever took (he only packed t-shirts, platform sneakers, and some cool sunglasses “because I was an idiot,” he recalls) -- and get a whole new perspective on how to see the world.
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