Reading, Writing & the Road

Three small words that encompass a whole world of possibility. These are the voices that call to me, the siren song that I cannot resist. The three things that have shaped my life so far and continue to give it form as I look to the future and to the vast unknown of stepping into a new stage, one of reinvention and possibility.

It all comes down to curiosity. Curiosity about the people and places that make up this country and the larger world. Curiosity about the science and psychology and mechanics and history that shaped the reality we see today. Curiosity about what might still be. It is curiosity that keeps me reading, keeps me traveling, and keeps me writing down my own reflections and observations. And as I explore, I’ve noticed that in cities large and small there is one place that always feels both unique and familiar, a place you can count on to reflect the community it serves.

The neighborhood bookstore.

I’ve always enjoyed checking out bookstores when I travel, but it didn’t become a quest until I read a surprising story in the New York Times about the resurgence of independent brick & mortar booksellers in the wake of the pandemic. In the piece, the head of the American Booksellers Association is quoted giving their current membership as 2023. And I got to thinking about what it might be like to visit them all.

Now, I know that’s not a goal I’m likely to reach. Businesses open and businesses close every day, and that number has certainly changed by now and will continue to do so as I travel. But stopping at the local bookstore, taking some time to chat with the bookseller, checking out the flyers in the windows or on the ubiquitous bulletin board has added a new dimension of human connection to my travels, especially when I am on the road solo. And it puts a smile on my face to pick up yet another book to add to my already infinite to-read pile at each stop.

Inspiration Everywhere.

Of course, bookstores aren’t the reason I travel. They are a touchstone along the way, a tool to help answer some of the questions that propel me and place where I can indulge in my never ending love for the written word. My desire to see, well, everything goes back to my young adult years and a quote from Henry David Thoreau that resonated with both my natural wanderlust and my innate insecurity.

HOW VAIN IT IS TO SIT DOWN TO WRITE WHEN YOU HAVE NOT STOOD UP TO LIVE.

Henry David Thoreau

Travel is my way of standing up to live, shaking off the ordinariness of routine and the sometimes mind-numbing effects of day-to-day life in order to see beyond the confines of this place at this time. Of getting out of the little bubbles we all create for ourselves, more now than ever in our digital age, and trading the words-on-screen connections to like-minded souls for the ambiguity of face-to-face interactions with people where ever we happen to meet. This is what I find so addictive about being on the road. The combination of chance encounters that spark a-ha realizations and solitude to reflect upon them, and the time and space to put pen to paper without the interruptions of work and home.

So, I take to the road to learn from the people I meet and to listen to the unspoken wisdom of the natural world. I let go and let serendipity lead me to discoveries that fascinate, that spark interest, that reveal something to me that I might never have seen in another place and time. Some are well known. Some are obscure. Some make an impression. Some leave me wondering why I stopped at all.

It is all part of the journey.

Where it ends, I don’t know. I’m just getting started in this third act of life, spending weeks on the road now in preparation to spend months or years on the road in the not-too-distant future. The first third of my life was spent learning and growing. The second third, devoted to my family. The next is dedicated to the world, to seeing it and knowing it and writing about it and capturing the wonder of it.

There is much still to see and even more to learn.