...When the virus of restlessness begins to take possession of a wayward man, and the road away from Here seems broad and straight and sweet, the victim must first find in himself a good and sufficient reason for going. This to the practical bum is not difficult. He has a built-in garden of reasons to choose from. Next he must plan his trip in time and space, choose a direction and a destination. And last he must implement the journey. How to go, what to take, how long to stay. This part of the process is invariable and immortal. I set it down only so that newcomers to bumdom, like teen-agers in new hatched sin, will not think that they invented it.
Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; not two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckage on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blow-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it.
John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley
I read this book a long, long time ago, and then, when I very first started our journey (months and months ago) I found a copy and snatched it up - thinking that it might be a good idea to read again. I opened it up for the first time today and this opening spoke to me. Maybe fate has stepped in and slapped me a little.
The journey -- THIS journey -- is an entity onto itself, and rather than fight it, rather than try to tame it into something. I need to let go. I need to treat it similarly to a friendship, and sometimes just let it be itself. It can have all its little tantrums, its little OCD moments, and then it can share its happiness and triumphs with me too... The trip has its personality, and we're still meeting each other.
The next couple of days will be a tough run, but once through it everything gets better. Keep it together Robert, keep it together. :)
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