“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” – T.S. Eliot

Today is Columbus Day, a day when we celebrate the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, commissioned by King Ferdinand of Spain, to sail the ocean blue in 1492 on his boats the Santa Maria, Pinta and Nina in search of the “New World.”

Given the growing controversy about the validity and integrity of celebrating a man who was not the first to step on the shores of America – and the ensuing insensitivity toward the indigenous Native American population – we might instead consider renaming the holiday “Explorers’ Day”, inspired by Hawaii’s “Discoverers’ Day”, in which we celebrate all explorers worldwide. Read more