Will he go? Too soon to tell (12/10/03)

"Going anywhere soon?"

It was a familiar question, and one that I've asked often with all of my globe-trotting the past few years.

But, for the first time in awhile, I wasn't sure of the answer.

Over about the past five or six years, a number of missions to the former Soviet Union have been possible, giving me an opportunity to work with newspaper editors and publishers there who are trying to find a path toward independence.

But those missions have been tough to squeeze into the calendar without doing a disservice to my job here and without posing an unfair burden on my family.

So far, I think I've been able to pull it off, though there have been a couple of times I came close to abusing the patience of both my family and my employees.

This December, it's been nice to have no further "adventures" on the horizon. It's been nice not to think about airline reservations or security checks. It's been nice not to imagine the physical and mental weariness that comes with 25 to 30 hours of travel-wait-travel-wait-travel.

So I've been content to answer that question at the top of this column with, "No, I'm just looking forward to staying home for awhile."

And then the e-mail came.

It was last week, and the message was a little cryptic.

But it boiled down to this: Would I — very tentatively — be interested in possibly returning to Tajikistan to do a follow-up seminar on newspaper management in Dushanbe sometime in March, maybe?

And right now, with Christmas carols echoing in my ears and thoughts of family gathering together close to my heart, I don't know what my answer is.

March seems awfully soon. My back hasn't really bounced back from the last long trip in October. I'm just getting comfortable back in my old routines. There's nothing better than to sleep in your own bed again.

And yet, it's not every day one is offered a chance to do a week of good work in Tajikistan, to stretch the limits of one's global experience, to see what's around the next corner.

So I'm torn.

As I struggle to make up my mind, I find myself thinking back to a guy I met a couple of years ago when I gave a speech in Richmond. He came up afterwards and said, "You've lived an interesting life." I nodded or something. Then he said, "Don't stop."

No decision yet, but I suspect his advice will carry the day.

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