Most of us know who we are and where we come from. We learn this from the stories told to us since childhood, from the customs and traditions we were raised with, and the information passed on to us from our parents, relatives, and teachers.
But what if what you know is only part of the picture?
A travel metasearch engine called Momondo recently launched a campaign called “Let’s Open Our World,” to highlight the importance of travel and show how experiencing other countries, cultures, and religions fosters trust, tolerance, compassion, and positivity.
To do this, Momondo invited a group of people to take a DNA test, discuss the results, and then travel to the parts of the world that showed up in their DNA. For some participants, the results unleashed emotions and surprise; others were inspired to reconsider long-held prejudices and assumptions.
It may be a cliche these days to say “we’re all connected,” but the DNA project highlighted in this short film reminds us that we share more in common with others than we may know, and that travel is not only a great way to find ourselves but to learn, ultimately, how to love one another as Jesus commanded.
Mark Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one’s lifetime.”
If you could follow the path of your own DNA, where would it bring you? If more of us took the journey, would terrorism and war be understood for the self-destruction they are?
And today we celebrate...