Traveling enriches our world view, sometimes in small but profound ways. My journal fell open where a crisply folded article pressed tightly between pages of “Peru July 2014.” Handwritten across the article’s headline, my mother notes ‘Ames Tribune 6/6/13’. The send-off package included the succinct columns of an article titled “We become what we do”. Yellowed and delicate the clipping traveled 10,000 miles between Colorado and Peru, to the top of a 14,850 foot Andean peak, 28+ miles of Inca Trail, and through mind-blowing architecture at Machu Picchu. Essentially the writer makes a case for doing productive work – AND – doing work for meaning. Etching the central message, David Brooks quotes Frederick Buechner “doing work where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” Brooks goes on to say “I’d think you’d be more likely to cultivate a deep soul if you put yourself in the middle of the things that engaged you most … If your profoundest interest is saving children in Africa, it’s probably best to go there instead of Wall Street.”