It's a little difficult to find a photo to illustrate a different way of living a life. This one, of Patmos, Greece, is intended to evoke "the public square" - a concept foreign to most American cities, but common around the world. While it is paved, it is really aimed at foot traffic and reflects an organization of life where the auto is not the primary means for travel within the city. What a good idea.

When we travel, if we really mix with the actual life of ordinary citizens rather than just stay in the tour group, we have a chance to see a different way of living, a deferent pace, with different assumptions. It's not that alternatives are always better, but they pose a different mix of benefits and problems. This helps to break down the assumptions we carry about what is possible and helps us imagine different ways of living our own life.

We don't have too many open air markets that occur once a week. That model is used in rural Kenya. Entire villages become markets once a week. Vendors lay out their clothes, tools, household goods, books and everything else. People walk to these villages from miles around.

Perhaps this model, suitably updated, might be of use for rural America where the stores can no longer compete with the Wal-Mart down the road. Stores would bring wares in semi-trucks to a particular town for a market day.

I don't know if it would work, but without travel and seeing alternatives, the idea would never be in play.