One People, One Planet: A Close Brush with a Global Hitch-hiker
a place to sleep - the Salvation Army wasn't free as it was in the States, but wanted a dollar contribution. "All I had to do was turn over a dollar and I would be able to lie down in a warm place. The snag was that I was stubborn, and I had made a decision never to pay for the privilege of sleeping. One dollar wasn't very much - true - but it meant one day less somewhere else. It was that first dangerous compromise. I knew that if I gave in this time, I would do so again, and each dollar that slipped from my grasp would make my trip just that much shorter. It was therefore out of the question." He then tried the welfare department, the police and the bus depot with no luck, until someone noticed him and invited him to share their hotel room!
In as much as he's frightened, stubborn or pedantic, he's also an eternally faithful optimist and positivist. These six years become ultimately the tale of his discovery of and conversion to the Bahai religion. It is not only a fascinating tale of extremism in cultural travel, Brugiroux very nearly killing himself in various war zones he chooses to enter and neglecting diet and hygiene to the point of collecting life threatening ailments along the way, but also a very good introduction to the beauties and history of this most marvellous of world religions
He concludes with sentiments so warmly positive as to approach naïveté: "I believed in joyful tomorrows, in days of never-ending peace that would be shared by everyone, to the four corners of the earth. Six years of thumbing along every manner of road and track in every kind of weather had taught me the truth of that conviction, until little by little it had become my deepest article of faith."
I look forward one day to crossing paths with André, I'm confident it will happen .... We are I think, kindred spirits.
Full details for the book worms:
One People, One Planet: The Adventures of a World Citizen
André Brugiroux
Oneworld Publications, Oxford 1991
ISBN: 1-85168-029-2
Originally published in French as:
La Terre N'est Qu'un Seul Pays
André Brugiroux
Laffont, Paris, 1975
Latest Articles