January 2006 - Article 1

     Would you think someone who wanted to walk around the world to be foolish and insane? Steven Newman set out to circumnavigate the world on foot to prove that such a notion was anything but that. He returned safely to his native Bethel, Ohio, four years later, fully vindicated in his belief that the world was full of good people and love if you were willing to believe it was there.

     What facilitates this kind of confidence in the world? Newman's journey took place in the mid-1980's, during the height of the Cold War. Along his trek, he walked in Turkey, just outside of Iran, while the Iran-Iraq War raged right over the border. He walked through the desert outback of Australia on the Stuart Highway, with flash floods and venomous insects for companions, almost getting killed by a paroled killer along the way. In Morocco and in Thailand, he escaped from the clutches of murderous bandits. So it wasn't as though his walk was trouble-free. But he still felt that the world was full of love if you just looked for it.

     The attitude that Newman took into his journey was one that if you believed the world was full of fear, that would be what you saw. Determined not to succumb to the belief that the world was evil, he set on his journey. In addition to become the first known person to walk around the world, he wanted to show that mankind wasn't nearly as bad as was believed by many. He decided not to pay for shelter, and the only thing that he would ask from people was a glass of water. It is that request of a vulnerable stranger that led him to many surprising encounters of goodness that he never could have planned.

     This attitude of opening oneself up to the world is a metaphor for opening the spirit. Marianne Williamson writes in "A Return to Love" that the resurrection symbolizes opening oneself in a constant manner to this goodness. By staying rooted in the possibilities of the present and letting go of the fear of the past, one encounters new life. When one realizes that he or she does not pretend to have an agenda, they are less closed than if they thought they knew everything.

     Certainly this spiritual analogy can be applied to the traveler. A person is more likely to stay rooted in the present during unfamiliar terrain because they don't know the rules and where danger lies. They don't pretend they know everything in and out. Hence, one is open to the possibilities of the moment in a way that perhaps they wouldn't if they were in the "known" territory of routine life. Of course, they want to enjoy themselves as well, so they trust their instincts to lead them to wholesome experiences as well as safety Newman was aware that each moment could change his fate, but believed he would be led to love. Hence, that is what he experienced.

     The so-called New Age movement does not have a monopoly in recognizing love as the truth. The Bible verse popular in weddings, 1 Corinthians 13, provides a description of what love is. Like Williamson, the Bible declares that love is the only reality: "But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away....now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known....the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13: 10, 12-3, NKJV)

     This truth is tantamount to saying the only thing real is love, so if one looks for love, or believes he or she is love, that will be one's experience. In a sense, Newman's journey was a way to walk away from the vestiges of fear and experience what he knew to be true, the reality of love. And vicariously, many people experienced this journey through his letters home and to fans around the world. The few times he wanted to quit, he remembered those who were cheering him on. He realized that if he did give up, it would prove the naysayers right: the world is a bad and evil place. It would be agreeing that fear was right all along. To prove that love was real, he had to make it real by continuing and not allowing fear to dominate him.

     In a sense, Newman's walked symbolized leaving the world of fear and adopting a new paradigm of seeing the world. The death of the ego, the resurrection, surrendering to God are all the ways one can walk away from the old fear and see the world in a new light. To walk around the world in love means to leave the comfortable home of fear. You don't know for sure what will happen to you on the journey, but you know that love will be part of you the whole way if you choose it to be. It is in letting go of old forms of security that one embraces true peace.