An American Traveler

An American Traveler is an eclectic, thought-provoking mix of essays with a singular, driving theme: A so-called "safe" sedentary life is as predacious as cancer. Returned more or less intact from his travels and writing from his Florida porch, Randy Wayne White demonstrates by example that the fun, the drama, the craziness of exploration, inward and outward, is a singularly important part of the human experience -- one to cherish and savor. White hangs out in Australia with the Crocodile Hunter and with Peter Blake and the New Zealand sailing team; he jogs the Mayan ruins of Guatemala and battles insects in his backyard garden. He's the lead sledder for an entry in the U.S. toboggan championships; he explores Vietnam, and gets lost jogging in Hanoi. He dives with great white sharks in South Africa; he plays baseball with dreamers and retired major leaguers. In a piece about his baseball team barnstorming in Cuba, he brings to play all the elements that make the estrangement between Cuba and its North American neighbor so tragic. Just as powerfully, he explores what it's like for the contemporary American male to reach middle age.