I read this passage today and like it soooo much~~~

If time, that rare resource, becomes plentiful, travel just might be the way to go.

I travel to live, live to travel, and support the habit by juggling real estate. Which is to say, I'm a constant subletter. I defray the cost of my wanderlust by renting my tiny apartments in New York and Hong Kong for short periods while I go on the road. By now, I'm an old hand at showing my living spaces to strangers, and on a recent Saturday morning, the software engineer from San Francisco was getting the A-1 guided tour of my Hong Kong flat. "Here is the bedroom," I said, following my well-worn script. "When you read in bed you can look out the window and see the International Financial Center, Hong Kong's tallest building. Through the dining nook there's a fabulous open view of the Central Police Station, built by the British in 1864 and one of the last standing historical buildings in downtown." Eric the engineer nodded absently. He seemed lost in thought. Worried that I was blabbing too much, I breezily changed the subject.

"So, then, what brings you to Hong Kong for a whole month? Are you on a work assignment?"
"No," he said, managing a chuckle. "I'm on a work nonassignment. My company isn't doing too well, and they've asked me and everyone else in the Shanghai office to take a month's unpaid leave. I hope it is just going to be for a month."

We fell silent as the specter of job loss loomed over our conversation like a shadow, as it does too often these days. But then my prospective tenant recovered, and continued, upbeat.
"You see, I've always wanted to get to know Hong Kong. My parents are originally from Toisan, in Guangdong Province, just across the border from here in China. I've never had an unexpected break of time like this before, so I thought I would take advantage of it to really settle into this city and get to know it. This is the kind of travel I always wanted to do."

It took his words a moment to really sink in, and when they did, they cut straight to my heart. Here was a guy uncertain about his future, about to take an enforced leave. Was he going to spend a month at home, polishing his résumé, pinching his pennies, and fretting? No. He'd decided to forget about what he was losing and grab the gift he'd been given: time. And use that gift in the best way possible: travel.

The Chinese newspapers call the economic crisis the financial "tsunami," a word that translates poetically, as so many Chinese words do, as "ocean scream." My own personal oceans have screamed often and loudly during my peripatetic life. But when the hardest waves hit, my response has always been the same: hit back, and hit the road.