life and living

My friend Mark Cole just wrote a nice mini-bio of Richard Halliburton. Some highlights:

The world is still worth seeing. It was worth seeing in the last century when Halliburton lived, and will be worth seeing next century as well, because nothing, not technology, not urbanization, not the internet, not jet airplanes, can quell the fascinating saga of human beings, of people, of cultures and civilizations, the ongoing conversation of past, present, future.

But the deeper and more universally applicable point is this: life is worth living. Travel may not be your deal. Fair enough. Travel is just one aspect of a life well-lived. The point is for you to determine what you find beautiful, joyous, romantic, inspiring. And then start doing more of that and less of the other stuff.

What turns you on, excites and energizes you? What is it that keeps you from degenerating into a gray mass of nothing? What will stop you from squandering tomorrow? ...

Some day, you are going to die. You can't change that. But before you die, you might as well live.

Thanks, Mark. Those last paragraphs are worthy of Halliburton himself. I'm going to have to go back and drink again from The Royal Road to Romance and The Flying Carpet.