We derive both pleasure and insight from travel writing, and few have composed such essays with better clarity and human sympathy than Ryszard Kapuscinski of Poland (1932-2007).
His observations are tonic for the disharmony and confusion of 2021. Travels with Herodotus is reading-rapture for me; I’ll never see nor understand Eastern Europe and post-colonial Africa, report ground level revolutions and coups, or be jailed 40 times (some with death sentences).
Kapuscinski was a modern day Herodotus (484-425 BCE), whose epic Histories is surely unmatched in curiosity and breadth of human observation, another delightful book. Kapuscinski modeled himself on the inquisitive sage from Halicarnassus (modern day Turkey), and was even accused of the same poetic license at times as Herodotus,……but history has proven kind to both.
- Observation without criticism.
- Insight without judgment.
- Differentiation without division.
- Acceptance without condescension.
- Compassion without pity.
- Portrait without cliché.
- Humility without inferiority.
- Doubt without confusion.
- Conclusions without finality.
What heroic principles these two role models display for us. One RK essay is attached.
Joe Kaempf, MD
District VIII Oregon Representative
Portland, OR
Volume 13, Number 31