ON TRAVEL

Travel! Set out and head for pastures new-
Life tastes the richer when youre road-worn feet.
No water that stagnates is fit to drink
For only that which flows is truly sweet.
no lion that spurns the hunt could catch its prey,
No arrow unreleased could earn a score.
A sun that hung immobile in the sky
Would soon be a universal bore.
Sandals mere firewood in its native grove,
Gold is but dust, unmined within the lode.
Things that are stationary have little worth:
They only gain their value on the road.


-- Ibn Battutah, a 13th Century Moroccan Traveler