Wanderlust Heaven!

I’ve never kept a journal. There’s no real reason for this – I love to write and have long intended to get my act together before senility approaches. That said, there are probably three drivers for my lack of output:

1. Stage fright – what if my writing stinks? It might be better to avoid doing any, thus preserving the random possibility that I’m actually talented.
2. Laziness – I’m a closet sloth. Somewhat related to #1 above.
3. Indecision – E.L. Doctorow had a great quote some time ago, he said that he was continuously torn between changing the world and enjoying the world, and that made it very hard to plan a day. I have a lot of diverse interests (not all of them illegal) and feel the same way. E.L. Doctorow, of course, came up with that great quote while I did not.

I have had experiences which inspired me to take up the pen. While living in India in 1992 I got on the elevator in my apartment building and noticed a ceiling fan which was revolving and which was completely uncovered. Anyone above the age of 7 could have reached up to touch that fan and had a few digits removed. I sat down and wrote a short piece about how you’d never see anything like that in the U.S., at least not without the fan being spray-painted with the telephone number of a prominent personal-injury law firm.

I also recall jotting down a few pages about a stroll around the India Gate in Bombay, and being verbally harassed by a fellow shouting “Hello Israel – Saddam Hussein is coming for you!” I wasn’t particularly worried that Saddam Hussein was coming to get me (or Israel, for that matter), and this was even before the US went mad and went to war with the guy for a second time. I was curious, though, about why he thought (correctly) that I’m Jewish. I suppose I’ll need to be particularly careful during my upcoming hajj to the Kabbaa in Mecca, Saudi Arabia (details to follow).

Anyway…I’m taking off soon for a 7-month trip around the planet, making numerous stops along the way. I’ll post blog reports as I go, so that I can keep my brain and fingers nimble and hopefully provide an entertaining record of my meanderings around places both bleak and bountiful. I also intend to work on 2-3 book ideas I’ve been kicking around for years and years, and see if anything comes of these. The more likely outcome, as you doubtless can predict, is that the 3 issues mentioned at the top of this blog will interfere dramatically with my intended writing and that I’ll get next to nothing done. Either way, the trip will be valuable; given the stops and adventures I’ve got planned, there’s virtually no way I won’t have fun.

I’ve been living in Boston with my family since mid-January. Not having lived at home in 20 years, and having been more or less on the run as a corporate bedouin for the past decade, being in a stable family environment has been interesting. My family would probably have several other adjectives to describe the experience of living with me. But I’ve really enjoyed re-connecting with my family and spending time with them. No one’s getting any younger, and I wanted to have a glimpse of my nephew Jacob’s infancy before he becomes a jaded old so-and-so like the rest of us. My family’s also had to work through some health issues and those now seem to be under control. I think I can declare mission accomplished and go off on some more travels feeling good about things.

The past four months have been filled with many good moments. My dad, step-mother Ellen, and I went out to Vail, Colorado to visit my step-brother Aaron, his wife Jodi, and their baby girl Samantha, who is adorable and good-natured, just like her parents. Aaron has been skiing since he was able to walk, and proceeded to shepherd the rest of us through an intense ski-a-thon which necessitated a trip to my sister Bonnie the chiropractor when I returned to Boston. We also went down to Sarasota, Florida with my sister, her husband Dave, and their toddler/my nephew Jacob. Jacob got sick one morning and performed a fascinating (to me) regurgitation of a bottle of milk. It’s also been nice to just hang out with my family, including step-sisters Amanda (in Boston) and Jessica (in New York), on a regular basis.

Bizarre events seem to track me, and one is worth sharing here. My second or third night home, I came back from a bar and hit the sack. My folks were out of town, so I was alone in their condo. The night at the bar was in itself intriguing, as it later on led to an unsolicited job offer – but that’s a separate tale. Anyway, I woke up the next day, drove around doing some errands, and en route home hit a major-league traffic jam right near the condo. TV cameras and cops were swarming the scene. Turns out that an insurance salesman was murdered execution-style in a small parking garage not 100 meters from the condo. Newton had recently been named “safest city in America” for the fifth year running and hadn’t experienced a homicide in all that time. And on my third night back in town, that streak came to a sudden end.

My step-sister Amanda jokingly accused me of having a role. She was teaching English in Thailand, and I had recently visited her and traveled with her to Chiang Mai. She then returned to work in her village, and I spent New Year’s down in Koh Samui before heading up to Hong Kong to pack my things. As I was flying out of Koh Samui I read in the local paper that a young Welsh female backpacker had just been found dead on a Koh Samui beach, perps unknown. Given what I had seen of the debauchery in Koh Samui, I wasn’t particularly surprised, but Amanda picked up on this story, soon heard about the Newton murder, and leveraged her powerful pattern recognition skills to assign the blame to me.

My innocence was soon proved in both cases. The Thailand case was solved (some Euro soccer yobs were to blame), and as for Newton, the victim seems to have been snuffed by a hitman hired by the estranged husband of the victim’s girlfriend. I’m glad both cases were solved, and that I didn’t have to lift a finger to help the authorities in either nation.

So it’s time to get going again, without anything hanging over my head. But I’m not in a real hurry, I’m calmer about being in the here and now than I anticipated I’d be. Perhaps that’s because I’ve been surprisingly busy, despite being jobless. Dealing with overseas taxes has taken longer than imagined; I’ve also been trying to get in shape, load up my iPod, get my gear in shape for the trip, and so forth. I’ve also, to be honest, spent a lot of time drinking with friends in bars all over the US. No apologies offered for that. I think the other reason for my relative tranquility is simply maturity (or whatever similar adjective applies to me). When I was younger I was always racing to get to the next place – a party in Sunapee, NH, a dinner in Boston, overseas to visit old friends in France. Now I’m pretty much happy and content wherever I find myself…like I’m at the center of my own ecosystem. That’s not meant to be arrogant – it’s just how I feel. Perhaps aging brings this sense of calmness – or is it apathy? Anyway, I think that my growing set of experiences and comfort level finally outweigh my innate sense of insecurity – that might be the arithmetic at play here.

My first stop is Australia. I’ll visit my old buddy Iain Wood in Adelaide, and we plan to drive up north to the Flinders Mountain range, to the bush, and eventually up to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. I’m keyed up to visit some dusty, smoky old Aussie “hotels” (i.e., pubs) and watch some World Cup matches. Later on I’ll head over to Cairns/Port Douglas, to Byron Bay, and finally to Sydney, from where I’ll fly to Manila. I’ll post updates all the way, so please visit this site from time to time and drop me a line. Looking forward to hearing from you and hopefully seeing you soon too. Get on Skype now!!