Book Review: A Walk Across America

A Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was going to another tale like "Into the Wild" or something. I was a little put off by the way that it was written, judging it by my "high" standards of a well-written book. But as I continued reading and became captivated by the tale, I quickly learned that this was a book unlike any other that I have read. It made me cry on no less than 4 occasions - and they sprang from a gamut of emotions: sadness, happiness, joy, beauty, mourning, and love. Peter Jenkins's walk from Alfred, NY to New Orleans, LA (as this book contains that portion of his walk) enlightened me to the beauties and dangers of our society and to ALL of the people that make up the fabric of this country that we call America.

Jenkins' starts out like any of the myriad of disillusioned, college-educated young people that graduate and gripe about the failures and evils of our country (I know that I fall into that category). But what Peter does that separates him from me is that he takes the advice of a guy that he works with and decides to discover what America is really all about and who really makes up the people of our country. And that decision to go forth and find that answer, with his forever-friend Cooper Half Malamute, begins a journey that takes him from the North to the South, down the Appalachian Trail and along the Gulf Coast until he reaches New Orleans.

In the journey along the way, Peter encounters many, many people - some who's hospitality is beyond belief, and others who's hostility is hard to swallow. One particular encounter in a North Carolina town was so harrowing, I marveled at the fact that he didn't quit his walk right then and there. He learns life lessons from a genuine mountain man in West Virginia, a black family and the rest of the community in Smokey Hollow North Carolina, a commune of people called "The Farm" who lived and worked the land and followed a religion called "Steve", and Governor George Wallace of Alabama - the same one who ordered the police to stop Martin Luther King, Jr.'s walk from Selma to Montgomery, to a revival in New Orleans when God finally found His way into his life. As Peter walks, his prejudices fall by the wayside, and I found that mine fell as well.

It is a testament to the power of his prose that a journey taken in the mid-1970s could still ring so beautifully and so truthfully. Yes, there are dark corners and evils in our country. But what Peter showed me is that there are many, many, MANY more wonderful, hard-working people who seek to etch out a living and in doing so enjoy life to an extent that I hope to know sometime in my lifetime.

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Time and Choice

"Choice signifies love....God chose you because He loves you." ~ Father Gregory

I heard that quote when I was in college and a couple of weeks ago I feel as if I gained a new understanding of the power of the choices that I make.

A few weeks ago I had to go and help out with a golf tournament that my boss had "volunteered" me for. Honestly, I didn't mind, because it meant that I got to spend a work day outside instead of trapped inside, sitting in my little cube which is my world day in and day out. The only downside was that I had to get up before dawn (4am) and leave my house at 5:15am in order to make it to the golf course by 6am. Major ugh for this girl who needs to sleep in the morning and has a specific routine of getting up, making coffee, has her quiet time, makes her bed, gets ready, and then leaves for work - a usual 2hr process. Well given the fact that I had to be out of the house by 5:15am, this routine had to be cut short and the only thing that was allotted the time in the morning was making the bed and getting ready for "work".

I ended up being at the golf course from 6am to around 2:30, 3:00pm - a long day out in the hot sun. I then stopped in at my regular office to answer emails, check voicemails and handle anything that had come up throughout the day. Leaving there around 5:00pm, I then headed home for a quick shower and then over to mom and dad's for dinner. I was there for a few hours and then headed home to watch the Season Finale of Deadliest Catch. I finally made my way to bed around 10pm and was out like a light.

The thing was, when I woke up the next day, I realized that I had gone a full 18 hour day without spending any time with God. An 18 Hour Day!! A day in which I was up for 18 hours out of 24, I didn't "find" the time to spend some in prayer and with my Lord.

I often find myself wishing for more time - "If only I had the time to do that" or "I wish there were more hours in the day" to do miscellaneous things. But the one day in which I was awake for more than the majority of it, I didn't "find" the time to do all that I wanted to do. And what that made me realize is that it doesn't matter how much time you have, or how many waking hours you have, but the choices that you make with that particular time. In a day in which I had an abundance of "time" I made choices and decisions to not spend any of that time specifically set apart for me and my Lord.

This was enlightening to me and brought a whole new depth to the word and concept of choice and time for me. Even if I had an abundance of time, I could still make choices that would keep me apart from God. It's the choice that I make of what to do with my time that is important. In that respect, choice does indeed signify love.

A Journey in Film

Last week I got to go see this movie with two of my dearest friends. We went to the Fairfax Cinema Arts Theatre, which is so charming. At the movie was one of my dearest and best teachers, Mr. Jacobs. So from the get-go, it was destined to be a good night.

Then the movie started and from beginning to end, it was absolutely beautiful and heart-wrenching - so much so that still a week and day later I am still thinking about it. The story of Christopher McClandless, or Alexander Supertramp, and his journey over a two-year span, culminating with his tragic and ironic end in Alaska, struck a chord within me.

There is a pain and yearning that Sean Penn and Emile Hirsch capture in this film. It is the pain and betrayal felt by a boy who has been scarred by his family life. There is a yearning for escape, to leave everything that they stood for, and try to discover himself and in the process, find happiness. Throughout his two year journey, Christopher/Alex encounters so many different people and touches many lives with his own. But his own end-goal is to go to Alaska. Alaska becomes his Quixotic windmill, except that he gets there. And he relishes his experience there, until the land starts to betray him - first with the impassable river that comes to life in the spring, and next with the lack of available food. Then his own intellect betrays him as he misreads his plant book and eats a poisonous plant that ultimately leads to his starvation. It is the ultimate irony, that in trying to escape from the pain of his family life, he learns in the end that happiness is shared - happiness comes from relationships, from the people that he met along the road, from being with his family. The place where he seeks escape gives him death instead - a kind of escape that he wasn't looking for.

There is so much more in this film though. For example, there is the whole sequence in which he meets Frank, an old man who lost his wife and son in a car accident while he was away fighting in a war, and since coming back to the States has not left his little town. And in part of that sequence, after Frank has climbed up a mountain after being told that he couldn't, he says to Christopher/Alex that it is only after we forgive that God's love can shine down and through us. Which is so true. I think I also was so touched by this sequence because it in a way reminded me of my Grandpa who I still miss and mourn for.

It has been a long time since I went to a movie and found myself still thinking about it a week later. The two other films that I saw last week (The Hat Trick, as I like to call it :)) don't hold a candle to this one. It is definitely a must see.

Another Point of View on this film...

Technology Gripes and About this Blog.

I can really hate technology sometimes. Especially when after spending an hour entering in a bunch of numbers into a program, you hit the "Save" button and it gives you a run-time error. So frustrating!

BUT - there are many benefits to technology. It has on many occasions saved me in a pinch, or helped me figure out an impossible task. I do love it more than I hate it in the end. Still - run-time errors are no fun.

A little note about the title of this blog:
When Blogger asked me what I wanted to entitle this blog, I was all of the sudden blown away by the dearth of possibilities available to me. I could name this blog absolutely ANYTHING. What word, phrase, quote, or silly combination of words would perfectly capture the essence of a blog - something that I know very little about - as well as myself?

As I was pondering through this quandary the thought suddenly came to me to name this "The Road Goes Ever On". Two reasons for this name: 1 - I was in the process of just finishing the book, The Fellowship of the Ring, and there is a poem in there about setting out on an adventure, a journey, and life at the beginning that I have always loved. 2 - Because I am firm believer in the theme of journeys and believe that this life we have is one, big, long journey with many twists and turns. No matter what kind of path you walk - smooth or rocky - there will be happenings along the Road that are unforeseen. And there are points along the Road in which you can choose a new path. And I feel that I am on the brink of that point right now. The Path has all of the sudden become wide open again, and I am allowing myself to explore some of its possibilities.

This blog will serve as a collection of random thoughts about the journey, as well as a place for quotes, antecedents, Bible verses, and general stream of consciousness. Should be fun!