Cross-training for a Literary Remix

Though I have been absent, my mind is never too far from this project. My time is consumed these days with all things “Camino”, so I can’t seem to set aside any meaningful time to write. Hours of lonely training sessions gives me ample time to cook shit up, but my energy level by the end of the day insists that I sleep rather than type. I have tried on several occasions, but the result is always the same. I end up face down on my keyboard with at least three or four lines of the following: “aposdifj;lekmm,maadpfjpiejfopijepoijjdlfkoiieiilasliwuueproiqkjgjgpirrfk”. Not exactly the literary masterpiece I was hoping for when I sat down to collect my thoughts. It’s probably for the best since the only thing I seem to be able to put into words are things I have a nagging feeling that I have mentioned before. Now nearly 400 pages into this work, I am having trouble remembering the things that I have shared and the things that have left unmentioned. On occasion, I go back and read old entries and find myself quite surprised at their content. In that way, I suppose this has turned into exactly what I hoped it would be. A time capsule to store my fading memories. Or maybe this is just my way of rationalizing the fact that I seem to have finally come down with “it”. “It” being the illness that seems to have a firm grip on my generation. The illness of “nostalgia”. In an age where there seems to be a certain want for “new” ideas, my generation is hellbent on simply rehashing the past and putting it in a pretty new package. Perhaps this is a dismal statement on my generation’s perception of the present. A belief that the past is better than the future? Nowhere to go but down? I don’t want to be nearly that cynical this early in my life, but there does seem to be a trend here doesn’t there?

Don’t get me wrong, from a musical perspective, I am a HUGE fan of the “remix”. Take one of my favorite songs and throw it on top of a phat (yeah I said it) beat that I can shake my ass to and you will most certainly win my hard earned dollars. Add to it a verse or two from Jay-Z and you will find me on the verge of ecstasy. This, however, is where it ends. It isn’t that I don’t have an appreciation for a well-produced “remake”, it just seems that the story teller in me would like to see something new and fresh. From toys to major motion pictures, we seem incapable of venturing into the “new”. We just made good on a promise to attend the cinema with our boys and were treated with the latest iteration of the Batman franchise. Well, the Batman franchise . . . version two. I admit that I have grown not to absolutely hate Christian Bale as Gotham’s eccentric bazzilionaire, and the films tend to be less campy and theatrical than the prior iterations. Still, even with a revamped story line or two, we are really just being fed the same old thing year after year. The newest Spider Man film in fact proves that we aren’t even letting much grass grow under our feet these days. How long has it been since Toby McGuire suited up as our friendly neighborhood superhero? What, like a week? I would like to say that this is limited to “Super Hero” films, but a recent preview noted that “Total Recall” is being “recalled” to the big screen. I could honestly go on forever, but I think you get the point.

So, I find this quite troubling from a literary perspective. I recently ran across a title called “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. Enough said really. Still, I find myself quite tempted in my writing to revisit the past. I would like to think that it is simply a reaction to the fact that my mind is so focused on my upcoming trip to Spain that I am not allowing myself the creativity necessary to invent something new to say. As I walk these days . . . and walking seems to be all I do . . . ideas race around my head in a wild torrent only to be cast aside as poorly written sequels to prior remarks. Just yesterday, however, it occurred to me. In writing, as in walking (and really as in life), the only way forward is one step at a time. “Living life two feet at a time”. This title sat, wanting for content and just like that I realized what it was that I had been stuck on for so long. I realized the sentiment that I wished to express but couldn’t because of the all the other tracks I had created to fill the album. An album full of dismal remixes that not even T-Pain could turn platinum. Walking vast distances is funny that way. It is simple right? It’s just “walking”, yet somewhere around euphoric mile 20 or so, walking becomes just one thing . . . everything. Feet begin to blister and shins begin to ache in such a way that another step seems impossible. The only thought that fills my head at this point is “just two more feet”. And somehow, my two feet oblige and push me forward.

Two more feet to do something different, two more feet to do something new . . . two more feet to discover a cure. Two more feet, that is all it takes in long distance hiking, writing, and life itself . . . just two more feet. It isn’t the vastness of the distance but rather the absolute brilliance that can be discovered inside that tiny little space just there beneath your feet. Life happens in those two feet. Children grow up and move away in those two feet. Careers begin and end in that same two feet. Humans are born while others die away in those same two feet. What more can you possibly ask for? I don’t know what lies miles further down the road, but I know the only way to get there is two feet at a time. So, to that end, I am going to do my best to continue this project two feet at a time and maybe the next time I attend the cinema I will be surprised with something original . . . Wonder Woman maybe . . . no wait, has that been done before . . . SHIT. Until next time. R