Publisher: The Perpetual Explorer About Us - The Perpetual Explorer

Mission: What does it truly mean to explore this world? Exploration is a physical process, a social process, as well as an individual one. Travel is an activity of leisure but exploration is fueled by our inquisitiveness and yearning, the need to feel with our eyes, our hands, our hearts, and our minds as much of this earth as we can. Perpetual Explorer is a product of our curiosity and our belief in promoting global citizenship through education and communication. We therefore invite you to get a little closer to this world and allow the world a little closer to you. Perpetual Explorer aims to establish itself as more than yet another online media source taking a voyeuristic approach to consuming cultural news, resources, and information. We want to challenge our readers in their understanding of other people and places and create a global community of participation, interaction, engagement, and dialogue. Aims and Objectives: To provide a platform of cultural learning resources and tools for education To share the experiences of people, cultures, and communities worldwide To promote exchange and dialogue between cultures A Note from the President: I have had a deep love of travel since my childhood. I was born abroad, in Germany, to a Scottish mom and American dad. Thus, despite my unremarkable, suburban life in San Diego, California, for the majority of my childhood, I was tantalized by the idea that part of me was from worlds beyond the rows of peach houses with alternating facades and landscaping. Further, I was lucky enough to be able to travel at an early age with my family. We visited my mom’s homeland in Scotland fairly regularly, and toured various destinations in Europe while overseas, including our birthplace in Tubingen, Germany. My memory of all my travels as a child, including those within the US, was that travelling was refreshing, not because it was relaxing or indulging but because it was eye-opening. Landscapes changed, whole ways of life differed, languages differed and my mind boggled at the whole world around me. It was beautiful, awe inspiring, and over-stimulating. I do not know if I would call that fun or relaxing. In fact often I think we returned exhausted mentally and physically and grateful for familiar territory. But, it was refreshing and my love for it stuck. And so, for me, travel has always been important and my definition of travel has always been essentially synonymous with my belief in the renewing power of exploration, of hitting the re-set button, of opening your eyes to seeing the world from a very different angle. I do not think there is a wrong way to travel. That said, it is very difficult to plan the right way to travel. How do we maximize the opportunity? How do we absorb the culture without just taking in the sites? How do we take time to learn? What are the customs? What will it cost? When will there be time? Is that the right time to go? Planning in order to restore one’s sense of spontaneity and one’s breadth of scope is not exactly an enticement… it is more of a paradox and an obstacle for most of us. Many of us retreat at this stage from exploring. We forget the power of it and the rewards. We forget the simple fact that going anywhere is going to be amazing! We decide instead that there is plenty we ought to be doing right where we are if we really want to explore so badly. And, we scold ourselves puritanically and get back to working away at our routine. I hate that. I do that and I hate that. So, I have developed a love for exploring however I can. Even if I cannot pick up and take off around the world, I can explore locally, I can travel the planet virtually, learning, seeing, communicating… The possibilities with new media for bringing exploration to us and eliminating the elitism associated with travel are tremendous. A world in watch multi-culturalism is not just for volunteers, non-profits, and rich tourists, is at our fingertips. Above all, an experience of globalization that expands beyond the corporate sector is possible, if we will only turn our attention to the ever-present social, psychological, and spiritual need of people to travel, to learn, and to explore new territory. It is my hope that in our small way, we can contribute toward a movement that will do just that. Perpetual Explorer is owned and operated by Lubel Industries.