backuponthesea's blog: "onceuponthesea"

Welcome

This will be an ongoing collection of my pre and post voyage existential and geographic reporting. At first things may be a little out of order. (I have been trying to make this page first, but I have cut and pasted it out of  existence. this is a rewriting.) I figure oh well. It's what writers do; write and rewrite.

It will be at first reflections on the pre-expedition phase; getting my ducks in a row. Like arranging for my social security to be sent there and  what to do about my octet of prescriptions. Maybe someday I will market  it as a guidebook for potential ex pats.

 I'm going fully mercenary about my writing for survivals sake.

Now I am preparing for an expedition. The difference between and expedition and an adventure is that an expedition has more or less set purposes and goals, while an adventure is by it very nature more indefinable and experiential.

If I go off on a tangent I promise to not run  you into a brick wall with it. I try to keep my tangents at least loosely connected to the basic melody of   the piece. If I tell you a story I want it to first of all be one you will enjoy reading and that it will make some kind of sense,however fractured that might be.

There will be some poetry,some pictures and the stories I will have little choice but to write. Travel like this invites serendipity and unusual characters and situations. I've said all I can say about how much I hate living in Skokie and America. Skokie will be a fleeting memory save the friends I have made here. The inexplicable tragic mess of America  as seen from outside might be a topic to  explore.

There is a bitter/sweetness in leaving.  I think of the people I love. and the people who love me. But I am not dropping off the end of the earth and will be in touch as much as is possible from whatever degree of civilization I will  have access to. So take your love and be  happy for me. What I'm about to do feels right on so many levels.

I figure  it's always a trade off. Nobody gets everything.. We make our  choices and take it from there. Since I have rebelled against domestication my entire adult life, I don't have the wife and the kids, now for  many of you grand kids, you  can't just walk away from it all and move to Belize. I can and I am thrilled that I can, and if I am not struck dead first i will do just that.

There's the trade off .

Cards on the table. More later.