September 25, 2006
Six Degrees of Separation -- from Yourself
When you have lived in or traveled to enough places this vast globe begins to feel like a Mobius Strip.
Once a chance ride home from church by someone I new only through her ministry at the parish revealed that she was the daughter of the housekeeper who served the family I lived with in Guatemala in high school. We had probably met several decades earlier and a continent away.
More recently, my interest in lilies (lilium species) has me virtually revisiting Tasmania and Taiwan. Taiwan, formerly Formosa ("Beautiful" in Portuguese), is home to the endangered Lilium formosanum.
For those of us interested in preserving Lilium species and hybridizing them to create new lilies for the garden there is a desire to make common cause with local green and ecology movement advocates.
Perhaps the indigenous people of Taiwan such as the Bunun can supplement their existing sustainable enterprise projects with a project to retain and restore Lilium formosanum -- a unique lily suited, unlike most, to warmer climates and as yet underutilized by commercial breeders. The Bunun have already shown extraordinary foresight in adopting Universal Design in their village and tourist facilities. Perhaps there is convergence of the best of First and Third World vaues taking place?
The critical reader may finish reading this post, look at the Rolling Rains tagline, "Travel, Disability, and Universal Design" and ask, "How many more travelers with disabilities are this passionately involved in "normal" activities of leisure or social benefit but remain an untapped market to the degree that Universal Design is not thoroughly embraced throughout the travel industry?
Posted by rollingrains at September 25, 2006 05:58 PM