Dr. Seuss on travel

(on the road to) Weyto, Ethiopia

It’s Christmastime, which means the TV-version of Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, published in 1957, has been in a few of our living rooms. Among other things it’s a nice little travel story, showing the positive effect that sliding off our perch and encountering our neighbors can have. How did the Grinch change through his visit to Whoville? According to Dr. Seuss: “Well, in Whoville they say that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.”

In 1990 Dr. Seuss published his final book, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! It’s another nice little travel piece with lines such as these:

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

And also these:

But on you will go
though the weather be foul
On you will go
though your enemies prowl
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike
and I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

Click here for the full text of Oh, The Places You’ll Go! (it’s short). Or, if you’d just like to look at some pictures, check out the Amazing Places that Resemble Dr. Seuss Illustrations.