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Woody Woodburn
400 Roosevelt Court
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Writing Life Stories ‘On the Road’
Jack Kerouac, in his 1957 masterstroke novel “On the Road,” wrote: “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.”
In my mind’s eye, I also see old-time commemorative luggage stickers from different destinations around the country, and globe, bedecking the battered suitcases. Those sticky souvenirs, popular in the early 20th century, provided a personal reminder of journeys taken while quietly shouting to others, “Look where I’ve been!”
Travel is on my mind because the Ventura Storytellers Project, hosted by The Star and starring local residents, will hold two shows Saturday evening with the Keroucian theme “On the Road.”
(Both shows at the Bell Arts Factory are sold out but will be available on-line at a future date. Visit www.storytellersproject.com/ventura for more information.)
To get the wheels rolling, below are some of my favorite observations on travel from a few writers wise on the subject.
Mark Twain pointed out why we should travel, writing: “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
In his on-the-road memoir “We Stood Upon Stars,” Ventura author Roger Thompson adds an additional command to Explore, Dream and Discover – Get Lost. He writes:
“While traveling I’ll often veer onto a road that wasn’t on my route. This is the beginning of adventure. It’s how I’ve discovered tiny towns and sunsets and secret fishing holes and the Philipsburg Brewing Company in Montana. It’s also how I’ve gotten myself desperately lost. And since it takes an act of Congress to get me to turn around, I keep going over switchbacks and single-lane roads until either the curiosity is cured or I run out of snacks. Before turning back I get out and survey the landscape, looking to mountain peaks or rivers or stars for clues. It’s always there, deep in the wilderness, with my wife or my kids or my buddies or alone, where – in desperation for answers or simply curiosity – I am met by God.”
Another Venturan, award-winning travel writer and novelist Ken McAlpine, who has visited the earth’s four corners, always reminds me before I embark on the road: “Be sure to turn down a hidden alleyway or go inside a quiet doorway off the beaten path because that’s where you’ll find some of the most memorable experiences.”
Wise advice, indeed, for no less a philosopher than Ralph Waldo Emerson memorably beseeched: “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Or, as Robert Frost poetically noted, take the road less traveled by for that will make all the difference.
Emerson’s younger contemporary, Henry David Thoreau, put it this way: “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.”
Were he on the “On the Road” stage Saturday night, Dave Stancliff, my first newspaper editor, would surely include his observation: “There’s many things to see in this world that aren’t in tourist guides for one reason or another.”
In other words, grab your battered suitcase, throw off the bowlines, go down a hidden alleyway, step to the music you alone hear, get desperately lost and, coming full circle to Kerouac, “lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.”
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
Check out my memoir WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and my essay collection “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” …
- Personalized signed copies are available at WoodyWoodburn.com
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