Real Time View

Travel has always been a part of our lives. Whether business or leisure, rarely did a week pass this year where we weren’t in planning mode for one trip or another. Not for Margo or me is the thought of heading out through the front door on our way to some destination ever giving us pause to wonder why? As our bags are brought up from storage to reside near our wardrobe, our imminent departure begins to look real. Even as our respective cultures differ on so many fronts where we find consistency is in seeing the world. Culture can be tough to define. Perhaps the best description of culture I came across was: Customs, laws, dress, architectural style, social standards and traditions are all examples of cultural elements. Deconstructing into these elements is helpful but might be a bit too vague for some. Although it is hard to argue with the role customs and social standards play in defining culture. Then again, there are plenty of other obvious examples. We have car culture; w...

  Creator: Simon Alvinge  |  Credit: Getty Images / iStockphoto After moving into our newly built home in northern Colorado, we cycled through many Kuerig coffee makers. It took a couple of years and a lot of trials and errors with more than one Kuerig coffee maker finding its way down into storage. Were we insane not to realize it wasn’t the coffee machines as we tried one after the other with no resultant changes in results? Eventually, having called in the electrician, it proved to be a faulty circuit breaker. “When these breakers were first installed there were a number of them that were problematic,” was the only response we were given. For Margo and me, take away our morning coffee and expect unpredictable behavior to follow. In fact, on any given day, it takes us three coffees before we can rationally face the work day. However, as much as we made adjustments to our schedules – a quick trip to Starbucks became the norm – there was always that fear lurking...