I picked up a delightful little book at the Arlington Public Library book sale the other day, entitled "All About Going Abroad", by Harry A. Franck. It is a sturdy little book, 7” by 5”, with a lovely binding and illustrations. It was written in 1927, and purports to “crowd within pocket-holding dimensions the distilled experiences and learning, in the matter of moving about the globe, of many men and many climes.” It has only 160 pages (53 of which are devoted to an index, a travel diary, and expense account sheets).
Within the pages of this book one learns how to budget, book various forms of travel, order dinner in several languages, properly read a map, the monetary exchange rates of the worlds major currencies, the points of interest in every major city in the world, how to pack, what to pack, how to tip, when to tip, the curious customs of foreign lands, various weighing and measuring systems, how to make a phone call on 5 different continents, and the distances between the worlds major cities.
The book seems to deliver on most of its promises, and it amazes me how efficiently it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It got me to thinking about so many things. I thought about how brevity and clarity are tied together. The scriptures teach us that. The simple, clear statement provides the greatest challenge: “Love your enemies,” or “Love one another as I have loved you,” or “You shall not bear false witness,” communicate, and challenge us more effectively than a library shelf of ethics books.
The book seems to deliver on most of its promises, and it amazes me how efficiently it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It got me to thinking about so many things. I thought about how brevity and clarity are tied together. The scriptures teach us that. The simple, clear statement provides the greatest challenge: “Love your enemies,” or “Love one another as I have loved you,” or “You shall not bear false witness,” communicate, and challenge us more effectively than a library shelf of ethics books.
Then there is the matter of travel – time travel. It is the stuff of science fiction, then again it isn’t. This book was written in 1927, at a time when post-war consumption was at its height, and yet at a time on the precipice of world-wide depression. The book is a portal, a worm-hole in time connecting a reader 80 years later with a moment when the world seemed wide-open and the horizon cloudless and endless. The book reminded me of another book about Americans traveling the globe in a postwar period – Mark Twain’s Innocents Abroad (1869). Harry A. Franck is 20 years closer to Twain than he is to us. None of that matters when a book is well-written. The distance of time is erased by the stroke of Franck’s pen, or Twain’s. This is most true of the Bible – the greatest of books by any standard. God is the God of the living, not the dead, as Jesus points out (Matthew 22.32), and so Abraham, David, Mary and Martha, Paul and all the rest are friends I may know now, as being now – not as having been.
But what struck me most was the list of things Mr. Franck seems to think are essential on one’s trip abroad. He begins by emphasizing, “leave behind everything you can do without.” He recommends you take one bag (10” by 15” by 24”) to carry, and one trunk containing 66 lbs. or less of baggage (for although English and German railways will carry 100 lbs. of checked baggage for free, the French, true to form, will only carry 66 lbs.). He is quite specific about what to pack in that trunk. A man should take: 3 suits, 1 sweater, 6 shirts (3 silk, 2 cotton, 1 flannel), 6 pairs of B.V.D.’s, 2 pairs of shoes (only 2!), 3 hats (a fedora, a panama, and a cap), 15 handkerchiefs, 6 neckties, 2 pairs of garters, 3 pairs of pajamas (2 silk, and 1 cotton or flannel), 1 pair of gloves, 6 pairs of socks, swim trunks, a masquerade costume, 1 pair of rubber boots, 1 topcoat, 1 umbrella, and 1 silk bathrobe.
He’s a little less specific about a ladies’ things, using phrases like “semi-evening frocks,” and “sufficient lingerie,” either out of ignorance or delicacy. His basic list seems like a lot to take, but is substantially less than the array of travel trunks Twain’s travelers took with them to Europe in 1869.
Jesus sends his disciples abroad – in Matthew 28.18-20, and earlier in Matthew 10. On that first journey Jesus was just as specific about what the missionary traveler takes for the journey: “Do not acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money-belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two tunics, or sandals, or a staff…” Jesus said to his disciples – “on your journey don’t be loaded down with any stuff.”
And yet loaded down we are. We, each of us, travel through life with lots of stuff. Jesus tells us our stuff competes with God for our affection and loyalty (Matthew 6.24). But we accumulate more and more without any thought.
And I sit here with a delightful little volume I only paid 25 cents for. It gave me joy, and several good ideas, and yet do I need another book? Do I need more stuff? And what has this stuff, little by little, done to me, and my relationship with God?
“Leave behind everything you can do without,” Mr. Franck advises. Amen.
Now may the Lord grant that we have the wisdom and courage to do so.
