The Way of Kindness: The Kindness of Dangers

"I only travel to safe places," Ernest told me. I wanted to ask what he meant by that, but he continued. "No Egypt, no Mexico, no Russia. Hell, I didn't even feel safe here on the subway in Vancouver."

I had struck up a conversation with Ernest when I sat next to him in my hotel lobby, waiting for my room to be cleaned so I could check in. Before I could ponder why he'd compare Vancouver to, say, Ciudad Juarez in Mexico or Cairo, he added, "Now China, there's a place I wanted to go. But Berta here" -- he nodded over to his wife -- "she put the eighty-six on that one."