Business travel

I have a good friend who is traveling this week (hi!), and know many others who travel frequently on business. I'm glad I'm not one of them, even aside from the other things it would interfere with.

It isn't that I don't like traveling, exactly. I love it. I enjoy going someplace new, taking the evening to see a landmark I've never been to, finding a nice restaurant with a special that's a bit different from what I can get at home. But at the end of the day - pardon the cliché, but I mean it literally - I've got to go back to that room. There it lurks, waiting to suck . . . me . . . in: the television, that marvelous modern invention which allows us to spend our time on, usually, nothing fruitful, at best. At home, where we restrict its offerings to a limited number of relatively benign basic channels, it's mostly a mere nuisance. I'm not too likely to get drawn into content that is outright sinful, largely because we've chosen not to subscribe to it, though an increasing amount of network content is just, well, prurient. But when I travel, it's hard to find a hotel anymore that doesn't offer at least some content that I've historically found more tantalizing. That's especially true on business, when the company has more say over my accommodations.

I haven't been away on business for several years now, but before my job became so stationary I began doing some things that helped me avoid putting those images before my eyes. I heard a speaker once suggest putting pictures of the family around the room, especially right on top of the ol' idiot box. I also make sure I'm equipped with some good prayer and reading material, including the Divine Office. Also, I like to have someone who knows my weakness in this area praying for me, a favor I try to return for my friends.

Finally, if there isn't a bunch of extra work to occupy me in the evening, I take advantage of the opportunity to journal. I love to write! I was cleaning out a padfolio the other day and reading through some of my travel and prayer journaling. It was a nice review, a chance to observe my growth and God's grace over the past few years.