As America approaches its 250th birthday, we're arguing over what America is. Some say it's the greatest country on earth. Others insist it's irredeemably flawed.

Before taking either position, Americans should do one thing: Leave. Not forever, but for long enough to see it clearly from a distance.

In his 1891 poem "The English Flag,” Rudyard Kipling wrote, "What should they know of England who only England know?”

Having grown up between Britain and America and spent much of my adult life traveling abroad, I've come to believe Kipling was right.

The point is that you cannot fully understand your own country until you’ve seen it from somewhere else. Millions of Americans never have. Only about half of Americans own passports. And many who do travel rarely venture beyond the resorts, cruise ships and English-speaking tourist bubbles that make up what I call “America abroad.”

International travel isn’t cheap, but the cost often isn’t the hardest part. When you enter a country jetlagged and ignorant – of the language, the exchange rate, the unwritten social rules – travel can feel like a series of minor humiliations. But it’s worth embracing the struggle because that’s where understanding and growth come from.

The world gets........

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