100 Miles vs. 30 Countries: What Most Americans Will Never Understand


The Universal Heart: Why Traveling the World Reveals We're All the Same

From Island Paradise to Global Awakening

Growing up in Honolulu in the '70s and '80s had its pros and cons.

On one hand, you're living on a tropical island with year-round warm weather and the Pacific Ocean as your playground. Life was beautiful in the most literal sense.

But here's what most people don't realize about paradise: you're also stuck on an island in the middle of the Pacific, six hours by plane from anything else.

You think you know the world, but your world is so incredibly small.

I thought I was worldly. I thought I understood people and cultures. After all, Hawaii was the "melting pot of the Pacific" with its blend of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Western influences.

But the truth was, I was living in a beautiful bubble.

When I was 20, I moved to Los Angeles, where there were 3.5 million people in the city alone— over four times as many people as were in the entire state of Hawaii.

That certainly expanded my horizons. The sheer scale, diversity, and energy of LA was overwhelming in the best possible way.

But it wasn't until I met my wife—a woman who had already traveled the world—that my real education began.

She started planning trips for us, beginning with where she grew up in Alberta, Canada: Calgary, Edmonton, and the surrounding beautiful areas of Emerald Lake, Chateau Lake Louise, and the breathtaking Canadian Rockies.

Then came Egypt, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain... and so many more countries. Nearly 30 right now, with no signs of stopping.

Each journey has expanded my horizons exponentially. I've seen how wonderful this planet is and, more importantly, how incredible the people in it are.

What strikes me most profoundly is how we're more alike than we ever imagined, even with our cultural differences.

Everywhere I go, I see the same fundamental human desires: we all want to be accepted, respected, and loved.

We all want to take care of our families and communities. We all want the respect and autonomy to live our lives in peace and care for one another.

I heard a statistic recently that broke my heart: the vast majority of Americans never leave a 100-mile radius from where they grew up.

That's not just sad for the incredible experiences they're missing—it's tragic because I remember how ignorant and arrogant I was when I was confined to Hawaii.

I knew what I knew, but I didn't know what I didn't know.

Travel changed that. Travel changed everything.

And I hope it changes something for you too.

The Ancient Art of Expanding Circles

Marco Polo: The Merchant Who Discovered Shared Humanity

In 1271, at age 17, Marco Polo embarked on what would become one of history's most transformative journeys. He traveled the Silk Road from Venice to the court of Kublai Khan in China—a 24-year odyssey that would fundamentally change how Europeans understood the world.

Before Polo's journey, Europeans believed that people in distant lands were fundamentally different—perhaps not even fully human. The unknown was filled with monsters, savages, and alien cultures that couldn't possibly share European values or aspirations.

But Polo discovered something revolutionary: everywhere he went, people were recognizably, beautifully human.

In his famous account, The Travels of Marco Polo, he wrote: "I have not told half of what I saw." But what struck him most wasn't the exotic differences—it was the familiar similarities.

Families caring for children. Communities working together. People falling in love, creating art, seeking meaning, and struggling with the same fundamental questions about life and purpose.

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Polo observed merchants in Samarkand who conducted business with the same integrity and cunning as Venetian traders. He watched mothers in Mongolia comfort crying children with the same tenderness he'd witnessed in Italy. He saw rulers in China grappling with the same leadership challenges as European kings.

His writings revolutionized European understanding not by emphasizing how different other cultures were, but by revealing how fundamentally similar human experience is across geographical and cultural boundaries.

Marco Polo understood something that modern neuroscience has confirmed: human beings everywhere share the same basic emotional architecture, the same fundamental needs, and the same capacity for wisdom, love, and growth.

Ernest Hemingway: The Writer Who Found Universal Truths

Ernest Hemingway spent his life traveling—from the cafes of Paris to the battlefields of Spain, from the fishing villages of Cuba to the safari camps of Africa.

But unlike tourists who collect experiences like souvenirs, Hemingway traveled to understand something deeper about the human condition.

Hemingway wrote:

"I have always tried to write on the principle of the iceberg.
There is seven-eighths of it underwater for every part that shows."

This wasn't just about his writing technique—it was about his understanding of humanity itself.

The "above water" part was what made cultures seem different: language, customs, clothing, food, religious rituals. But the "underwater" part—the seven-eighths that really mattered—was universal: love, loss, courage, fear, hope, despair, the struggle to find meaning in the face of mortality.

Whether he was writing about American soldiers in Italy during WWI, Spanish bullfighters facing death in the ring, or Cuban fishermen battling the sea, Hemingway revealed the same underlying truths: people everywhere grapple with the same fundamental challenges of being human.

In A Farewell to Arms, an American soldier and an Italian nurse find love amid the chaos of war. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, an American fights alongside Spanish guerrillas and discovers that heroism and sacrifice look the same in every language. In The Old Man and the Sea, a Cuban fisherman's struggle against nature reveals universal truths about dignity, persistence, and grace under pressure.

Hemingway's great insight was that the more deeply you understand any culture, the more you realize how much we all share beneath the surface differences.

The Universal Principle: Expanding Circles of Compassion

Here's what Marco Polo, Hemingway, and every wise traveler throughout history has discovered: exposure to different cultures doesn't reveal how different we are—it reveals how similar we are.

This works because travel forces us to move beyond superficial differences and engage with the deeper human realities that motivate all behavior:

  • The parent in rural Morocco worrying about their child's future has the same concerns as a parent in suburban Ohio
  • The small business owner in Vietnam trying to provide for their family faces the same challenges as an entrepreneur in Detroit
  • The elderly couple walking hand-in-hand in a Swiss village shares the same love and commitment as grandparents in Kansas
  • The young person in Tokyo dreaming of their future has the same hopes and fears as a college student in California

The more you travel, the more you realize that what we call "cultural differences" are often just different expressions of identical human needs and values.

Ancient philosophers called this "expanding circles of compassion"—starting with care for your immediate family, then extending to your community, your nation, and ultimately embracing all of humanity as part of your extended family.

Robert Thurman: Expanding your circle of compassion

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The Warrior Philosophy: Strength Through Connection

What makes this "warrior wisdom" rather than simple cultural observation is its recognition that understanding our shared humanity is a source of real power.

Warriors throughout history have understood that fear and conflict often arise from ignorance and misunderstanding.

When you've sat at tables with families around the world, when you've seen how people everywhere struggle with similar challenges and celebrate similar joys, it becomes much harder to see any group of people as fundamentally "other."

This doesn't mean becoming naive about real differences in values or ignoring genuine conflicts. It means approaching differences from a foundation of shared humanity rather than assumed alienation.

Consider how this changes your approach to:

Conflict resolution: Instead of assuming the other person is unreasonable, you start from the assumption that they have legitimate needs and concerns that might not be immediately obvious.

Business and career: You develop the cultural intelligence to work effectively with people from different backgrounds because you understand the universal human motivations beneath cultural expressions.

Personal relationships: You become more curious and less judgmental about people who seem different from you, which leads to richer connections and broader perspectives.

Leadership: You can inspire and motivate diverse groups because you understand how to appeal to shared values while respecting different expressions.

The Ripple Effects: Global Consciousness in Daily Life

When you truly internalize our shared humanity, it transforms how you move through the world even when you're not traveling:

Individually, you develop what psychologists call "cognitive flexibility"—the ability to see situations from multiple perspectives. This makes you more resilient, more creative, and better at solving complex problems.

You also become less reactive to differences and more curious about them. Instead of feeling threatened by unfamiliar customs or viewpoints, you approach them as opportunities to learn something new about the human experience.

Professionally, this global mindset makes you incredibly valuable in our interconnected economy. You can work effectively with international teams, understand diverse markets, and bridge different perspectives to create innovative solutions.

In relationships, you become someone who brings out the best in others because you're looking for shared humanity rather than highlighting differences. You create connections across boundaries that others might see as insurmountable.

Collectively, when more people understand our fundamental connectedness, we create communities and societies that work better for everyone. We move beyond tribal thinking toward genuinely collaborative problem-solving.

Putting It On the Mat: The Warrior's Practice of Expanding Circles

The Radius Audit: How Big Is Your World?

Start by honestly examining the boundaries of your current experience:

  • What's the farthest you've traveled from where you grew up?
  • How many people do you regularly interact with who have different cultural backgrounds than yours?
  • What percentage of your media consumption comes from sources outside your cultural bubble?
  • When was the last time you had a meaningful conversation with someone who sees the world very differently than you do?

Most people discover that their world is much smaller than they realized.

Three Levels of Circle Expansion Practice

Level 1: Local Exploration: You don't need to travel internationally to start expanding your circles. Begin by exploring the diversity that already exists in your area. Visit neighborhoods you've never been to. Try restaurants serving cuisines you've never eaten. Attend cultural events, religious services, or community gatherings outside your usual circles. The goal is to start recognizing shared humanity in people who might initially seem very different from you.

Level 2: Intentional Travel: When you do travel, whether domestically or internationally, travel like Marco Polo rather than a typical tourist. Instead of just seeing sights, engage with people. Stay in local accommodations rather than international hotel chains. Eat where locals eat. Ask questions about daily life, family traditions, hopes and concerns. Look for similarities rather than collecting differences.

Level 3: Global Perspective Integration: At the advanced level, you develop what the Dalai Lama calls "universal responsibility"—a genuine sense of connection to all human beings regardless of geography or culture. This means making choices in your daily life based on their impact on the global human community, not just your immediate tribe.

Daily Micro-Practices for Expanding Circles

  • Morning connection intention: Each morning, commit to having one meaningful interaction with someone outside your usual circle
  • Cultural curiosity practice: When you encounter something unfamiliar, ask "What human need or value might this represent?" instead of judging it as strange
  • Media diversity: Weekly, consume news or entertainment from a different cultural perspective than your default sources
  • Shared humanity reflection: Monthly, reflect on how people you've met from different backgrounds have similar core concerns to your own

When Your Tribal Instincts Kick In

Your brain is wired to be suspicious of "outsiders" as a survival mechanism from our ancestral past.

When you feel defensive or judgmental about people who seem different, pause and ask:

  • What human needs might be driving their behavior?
  • How might their background have shaped their perspective in ways that make sense from their point of view?
  • What do we share in common beneath the surface differences?
  • How can I approach this with curiosity rather than judgment?

The Lifetime Circle Expansion Challenge

Here's your practice for creating a life of expanding connection:

  1. Month 1: Complete your radius audit and begin local exploration
  2. Months 2-3: Plan and take one trip (even if local) where the primary goal is cultural understanding rather than sightseeing
  3. Months 4-6: Develop regular practices that expose you to different perspectives and ways of life
  4. Ongoing: Make expanding your circle of compassion a lifelong practice, whether through travel, reading, relationships, or cultural engagement

Remember: The goal isn't to erase differences or pretend they don't matter. It's to recognize that beneath all our beautiful diversity lies a shared human heart that beats with the same fundamental rhythms of love, hope, struggle, and aspiration.

As I sail back into Amsterdam after my 23-day journey, I carry with me something more valuable than souvenirs or photos: the deep knowledge that wherever we come from, wherever we're going, we're all part of the same human family.

The world isn't as big as we think it is. The differences aren't as vast as they appear. The things that unite us are stronger than the things that divide us.

Travel if you can. Explore if you're able. But most importantly, approach every person you meet with the understanding that beneath whatever surface differences exist, you're encountering another member of your extended global family.

The warrior's greatest victory is recognizing that there are no real enemies—only fellow travelers on the same human journey.

Welcome home to your world.

And welcome home to the beautiful truth that we're all going there together.

P.S. If you’ve been walking your path alone, it’s time to train with a tribe.

Join us at The Leader’s Dojo—we rise together.

Charles Doublet

Helping young men to become warriors, leaders, and teachers. Showing them how to overcome fear, bullies, and life's challenges so they can live the life they were meant to live, for more, check out https://CharlesDoublet.com/

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