Reason No. 1

You can only love things in particular, not as generalities.
A landscape that you don't know, in detail, and understand, in detail, is merely "scenery"--a green blur. The green blur of the Amazon, the green blur of the Everglades, the green blur of the Canadian Rockies ... you might be momentarily thrilled, but this is to love as a one-night stand is to a 50-year marriage.
The Dalai Lama once advised a woman who asked if she should go to India to seek enlightenment: "If you want to find water, it's better to dig one 60-foot well than ten six-foot ones. Start where you are and dig deeper."

1000 Reasons to Stay Where You Are

... That's the tentative title of my next book. It's in reaction to that title I see screaming from bookstore shelves in airports when I travel on business: 1000 Places to See Before You Die!
--well, not unless you are very wealthy and exceptionally long lived, of course. I calculate that if you start at age 18 and travel until you are 98, you'd need to have twelve vacations a year to fit them all in. Unless of course you engage in whirlwind tours--"If this is Tuesday, this must be Macchu Picchu."

Surely I'm not the only person who finds this kind of notch-on-the-belt travel offensive? What is the purpose of it, other than bragging rights, the accumulation of tchotchkes, the development of a worldview that is best expressed as "I consume the planet because I can!"