Imagine a child who grew up orphaned. Her parents were murdered, she was press-ganged into child sex trafficking through no fault of her own, grew up and turned to drugs and voluntary prostitution and eventually resurfaced and built a second life as a doctor or aid worker. Has she experienced a lesser portion of life than somebody who recently spent two weeks in Egypt because they could afford it?
If travel really broadens the mind, how come people that habitually go travelling can only ever wax excited about travelling before they go, and can only ever repost several hundred near-identical instagram photos of themselves waving at waterfalls online when they return? Why am I not getting any intellectual nourishment in conversation with their newly-broadened minds? A 70mph bus to the face also broadens the mind. It broadens it all the way across the tarmac (if you were looking for a way to broaden it even further without emptying your pockets). The Queen has been all over the planet - does she have higher claim to relay what real life is really like?
Of course I'm not suggesting that people who travel aren't particularly broad of mind, I'm just expressing the vain desire to see these idioms retracted a bit, being as they are so smug and self-important. I know people who have never left the country who are infinitely more liberal-minded and socially-savvy than people who spend a third of their year being frisked by airport security. And I too have travelled, don't think that this is an "It's not fair" spit of bitterness. I've been everywhere, man (except Australia - I'm scared enough of spiders that can't kill you). How about we change the phrase to "Travel is one way of broadening the mind"? Not quite as concise, and doesn't roll as effortlessly from the tongue, but it has scope to catch on.
Right, my passport has arrived! I'm off to book tickets to Guatemala. Night x
