“The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates
This is me going in a new and different direction, albeit down an old and familiar path. I don’t recall everything. I’m not gonna pretend to recall everything. I’m just gonna do the best my memory will allow at this time, albeit through a funhouse of mirrors altered by smudges of time and impermanence.
Blind Melon; ‘No Rain’
“If I looked inward I would see only infinite mirrors staring into myself for eternity” —Neil Gaiman
The original text was published online in a series of blog posts. I’m guessing last touched around late 2015. The storyline is simple: Ride an old motorcycle around the circumference of the Lower 48, preferably without dying. The goal nonetheless being to get rid of the blues though, one damned way or the other.
Joan Osborne; ‘Tangled Up In Blue’
“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” —RobinWilliams
There’s therapeutic value, yes, but therapy, or alleged self-actualization arising from trauma or addiction, have no place here. I’m more about the objective investigation. Understanding by way of sifting through old words and pictures. Lean into the punch, for better or for worse. To not only piece together the puzzle pieces in my mind, but to also analyze them for purposes of understanding. To write my story.
The Beatles; ‘The Long And Winding Road’
“If you would not be forgotten, as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.” —Benjamin Franklin
This really isn’t a starting over because I’m pulling from the last known text. However, this is a sort of starting over because I’m writing on top of that last known text. The three perspectives uniquely sharing the same page: the facts; the last known text interpreting the facts; and my current reconciliation of all of the foregoing. My hope is to learn something; or to write something worth reading; or to at least document that I most surely did things worth writing.
