Postcards

In the age of e-mail, does anybody remember postcards? When I was growing up, my cousin Barbara had the most glamorous job -- she was a flight attendant for British Airways and she really was "all that." Looking back, her apartment must have been tiny, but I remember it as filled with treasures: a big bowl of foreign coins (which we were allowed to sift through and maybe pocket one or two); beautiful carvings and tapestries and knick-knacks from all over the world. Europe, Asia and Africa -- she saw it all. Best of all, Cousin Barbara never failed to send postcards from her travels. I can't remember a single line she wrote, but I do remember her travels inspired me to want to follow in her footsteps.

And in a sense I have. As a journalist, I have been privileged to see a lot of the world. I still haven't seen as much as I want to, but I have already seen more than I ever dreamed as a kid growing up in Brooklyn.

I like to say that the best thing about traveling as a journalist is you often don't see the things that everybody sees, but you do get to see the things nobody else sees. You may not get to the Taj Mahal, but you get inside the home of a Polish dissident turned member of Parliament; you don't get to shop in Singapore but you do get inside the Blue Palace, the South Korean president's heavily-guarded residence. You get inside places. You get to see, feel and taste things. You try to get close to the real deal, as it is lived by those whose experiences you are trying to capture.

With that, I'd like to introduce another of our regular features. They are called, simply enough, "Postcards," and ideally they will come from you, our listeners. Have you had a travel experience that rocked your world? Have you gotten on the inside? It could be a short vacation jaunt or an extended overseas journey, but did something about it make you see the world differently? If so, we'd like to know about it.

Our first two postcards come, not too surprisingly, from journalists, but that's because we happened to hear about their experiences and asked them to craft these pieces. Hopefully, these pieces will give you an idea of what we're looking for.

The first comes from freelance documentary television producer Kate McMahon. She and her husband Shawn decided to live in Barcelona for a couple of months. They lived off the grid, so to speak, maintaining their U.S. employment with the help of Internet phones. But they happened to be in Spain at the height of the immigration debate in the U.S. last summer, and that caused Kate to compare circumstances....

The second is from travel writer and NPR contributor Gwendolyn Glenn. She went to Costa Rica for the rainforests, but while there she discovered paradise was hiding a dirty little secret.

So, take a listen and let us know what you think by posting here on the blog.

Then ... have you had a travel experience you want to tell us about? And we really don't mean complaints about the food, hotel or airlines, but something richer than that, something that tells us something about the way our worlds collide. We want to know. Next time you get on a plane, think of us....

If you have a postcard "experience," submit it through our contact form.

Remember, postcards -- or in this instance, E-postcards -- are BRIEF ... no more than three minutes in length (time yourself reading it with a stopwatch). Impressions, not dissertations. Ideally from places most people haven't been to, or unique impressions and insights. Original work only, please. Bon voyage!

Michel Martin

11:50 AM ET | 02-15-2007 | permalink