Letter from the Founder—September 2020

Eleanor Roosevelt with the poster of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Image | FDR Presidential Library

Benvenuti! Welcome to the Second Issue!

With our first issue in August, we launched this new path in travel writing, covering a theme from the differing perspectives of our international team. This month, we are continuing to explore the potential of travel writing with new columns and a new theme.

Because this is a critical point in history, we are writing about the value of Democracy this month. While this theme seemed logical and easy, it turned out to be more challenging than we’d anticipated. To help our guides find their path, we had a brainstorming session. The result of our discussion was fascinating. Each person came up with a completely different approach, based on history, culture, and differing experiences. The conversations that popped up were not just interesting but also revealing about how our perceptions of what Democracy is varies wildly. 

The Guide Collective is a simple idea: by drawing on our international community united in a love of travel, perhaps we can strive to understand each other better. What came out in our development of this theme was something even more intriguing. There was an assumption that we all understood what Democracy was, in the same way. It turns out, that is really not true at all. By listening to each other, as you can imagine, we often learn about ourselves.

Sarah Murdoch
Founder, Guide Collective