There are many forms of travel but no destinations. My experience thus far has been birth - 20's exploration, mid 20's -late 50's consolidation, late 50's to now the return journey and seeking the internal core from which I issued.

Ask the Waterboys... I always get the feeling that The Whole Of The Moon is about how some people can get their lives together without needing to wander 'out in the world for years'.

I may be getting the actual point of the song entirely arse-about-face, but that's what I take away from it.

I think it is. Learning and experiencing other places and peoples makes one well-rounded, and, at least to me, more empathetic and understanding of our differences, and perhaps helps us understand and see how we are alike. Except for Repukelicans......there is no hope for them!

Essential? Probably not. Helpful? Probably. During my Army days I experienced a few foreign countries and gained an appreciation for the beauty of other countries and for some locations (with fast population doubling rates, deprivation of the masses). One of many observations was when I was in Panama City Panama. (Just before we got rid of Noriega). On the way to work the left side of the street was filled with multi-story concrete tenement slums with glass horizontal blinds that allowed you to see many people crowded into small rooms. The sidewalk in front were a solid line of shirtless (or only wearing a white undershirt) people scrubbing white underwear with their wash basins and wash boards. If you looked on the other side of the street, a perfectly groomed lawn surrounded an amazing church with gold steeples proudly announcing the superiority of the (anti-burth control) Catholic church. Although my travels have opened my eyes to the diversity of the world, reading (more then once) "The Grapes of Wrath" had a greater influence then traveling in establishing who I am.

Yes, yes, yes....a million times YES!

I agree with jlynn37 in that it is helpful though not necessarily essential.

Though having said that, throughout history it seems crossroads cities, port towns and the like, where new ideas meet and create ever new thoughts and ideas, drive progress and enlightenment. I read voraciously as a young man and for a person my age had a broad perspective. I joined the USAF at age 18 and then traveled to 38 countries and US possessions during the next four years. I saw a lot, not all of it good, but yes, I grew even more. It has helped to this day now close to 50 years later.

When you travel you get to experience and learn differently. If those two things make you grow. That's good.

Only if the travel allows a person to be immersed in a different culture long enough for the person to compare and contrast the culture with his or her own in a probing, substantive way. I have often expressed the idea that 2 and a half years in Germany helped me to underwtand my own culture, and that learning German was the best English lesson I ever had.

Maybe not, but it certainly provides faster growth. Looking out your window doesn’t provide the perspective you get from living in a separate county, state or country.

Essential, no. Helpful, yes.