{"id":72,"date":"2014-08-06T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2014-08-06T12:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/blog\/?p=72"},"modified":"2016-02-23T16:16:07","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T00:16:07","slug":"the-travelogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trailheadproductions.com\/palette\/the-travelogue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Travelogue"},"content":{"rendered":"

The thought has often crossed my mind that many of the most interesting adventures\u2026 or misadventures, to be more accurate\u2026 I had as a journalist happened before anyone actually paid me for the privelege. There\u2019s a story to be told about the time I almost dislocated Bill Clinton\u2019s shoulder \u2013 or at least that\u2019s what he says\u2026 I dispute that \u2013 or the time I was almost killed twice in the same day covering flooding in rural Missouri, but I think those are stories for another day. All I can really say with any authority is that a grain elevator is not a good place to be when a levee breaks, and Bill Clinton has remarkably flabby upper arms. Or at least he did in July of 1992.<\/p>\n

What I can also say is that even after twelve years in news, I remember those beginning days with much more clarity than the final days. This is true of any job, of course. Work is always more interesting and more memorable when it\u2019s new, and when every success\u2026 and every mistake\u2026 is the first one of its kind. Those new experiences are pivot points in one\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

The hard part, of course, is handling the transition from \u201cI can\u2019t believe I get paid to do this\u201d to \u201cI can\u2019t believe I have to do this.\u201d For the very fortunate few, it\u2019s a soft landing, and there are still enough high tides to cushion the low ebbs. \u00a0Television news, for me, was a career almost tailor made to smooth out and often delay for years, that transition. What I\u2019ve previously described as an immunity to the \u201cgrass is greener\u201d mentality also has the ability to, in regular intervals, renew one\u2019s spirit. I think the inevitable result of changing your job, your home city, and even your circle of community every two to three years is that at least something is new and fresh again. Did I say my best days in news were the first ones? That\u2019s true, but I can still tell you about the first stories I covered in every market I lived in over the course of almost twelve years.<\/p>\n

What I mean to say is that there were many more times when I felt that I was experiencing what Winston Churchill would have referred to as the end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end. That feeling that everything up to that point was merely prologue to the perhaps exciting but certainly challenging work yet to come. \u00a0 I feel my challenge over the past several weeks has been to turn the prospect of losing my sight into a fresh start. This strange muddle of a middle ground \u2013 not quite blind, but not quite sighted \u2013 is a strange place to plant one\u2019s flag, and I could be standing here for quite a while. The idea that I could lose what remains of my sight today, tomorrow, next week\u2026 or never. It\u2019s exhausting, but there’s a strange side effect to it as well. \u00a0There’s a feeling that it’s also prologue to… something. \u00a0I don’t think anyone would call it exciting, but challenging? Absolutely.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the idea that the past several weeks have been more about reaching the end of he beginning rather than the beginning of the end have been so appealing. If I\u2019m not entirely \u00a0certain of the future yet, I\u2019m achieving\u00a0a comfort level with that uncertainty. The beginning of the end? I choose not to see it that way. \u00a0 The end of the beginning? I think this is more hopeful, and more importantly, more useful.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about tools, and while those tools still do feel more than a bit clunky in my hands, at least I know what they are. I\u2019ve written about colors, and I\u2019m pretty thankful that they are, to date, still a part of my life. Finally, I\u2019ve written about using those tools to experience the world through those colors, and of figuring out how to do that. \u00a0I think I can see a pathway for that now.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, I think it\u2019s time to say it does in fact feel like I\u2019ve reached the end of the beginning. The point where I\u2019m comfortable saying no matter how much sight I lose, I can still explore the world on a meaningful level. This is the level that is more than being strapped onto someone else\u2019s adventure. Not being dragged to the top of a mountain or packed like luggage into someone\u2019s car. What I\u2019m trying to say\u2026 although not with as much success as I\u2019d like (sorry about that) is that if I\u2019ve learned anything these past few months, it\u2019s that the barrier to my exploring the world is not going to be my physical eyesight, but only the lack of vision, in the metaphorical sense, \u00a0that keeps\u00a0even those with perfect eyesight\u00a0\u00a0rooted\u00a0in one place.<\/p>\n

So, to that end\u2026 the travelogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Red<\/h3>\n

Uluru is the heart of Australia\u2019s Red Centre, and I love the idea of this monolith standing in the middle of so much empty space. While it\u2019s possible to fly to Alice Springs and drive the final several hundred miles, I have a better idea.\u00a0\u00a0 They say you haven\u2019t seen America until you\u2019ve seen it from a train. I think this sentiment works for Australia too.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Blue<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ll never forget the first time I saw the Pacific Ocean. I was struck by the enormity of it, and of thinking that, for now, this was as far as I could go in my travels west. The only decision now is which edge of the Pacific Rim I want to use as a jumping off point. Oh, and how to sail would be a nice value add\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Yellow<\/h3>\n

C\u2019mon. The real Tatooine. Who wouldn\u2019t want to take a look?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Green<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I have not a single drop of Irish in me, but this place \u2013 the fields and woods near Killarney \u2013 it\u2019s been calling to me for a long time. There\u2019s an interesting inn-to-inn hike I\u2019ve been eyeing, and I think there\u2019s much to do to make it happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Orange<\/strong><\/h3>\n

My adopted hometown of San Francisco. Up close and personal, there are still so many avenues to explore for this journey, and with my team, that make it fresh.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Purple<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Oh, all right, this one is a bit on the metaphorical side when it comes to colors, but those purple mountains majesty became a part of me many years ago, and there are some climbs I want to revisit with these new challenges.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

Brown<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Those waters of the Ganges have to be more than the meditation minded version of a tourist trap. I want to see for myself, and my mind is open.<\/p>\n

Black<\/strong><\/h3>\n

I\u2019m keeping this one in my back pocket, because I have an idea here. What I want to say about this harkens back to that beginning of the end idea. The idea that the end isn\u2019t really the end. That even in blindness, there is a world of color. Unconventional color, to be sure, but it\u2019s there. I don\u2019t want to talk about black just yet, but it holds true to my idea that I\u2019m more in favor of the end of the beginning, rather than the beginning of the end.<\/p>\n

So really, everything from this point will be about making the travelogue something more than an idea that sits on a server, somewhere in the cloud. At its heart, words are\u2026 they\u2019re just words. They can be anything you want them to be, and they can certainly be fiction. If this is the driving force of my life, then anything I\u2019m writing has to be backed up by something more substantial. If I\u2019m doing it right, everything from here will at least have a grain of accomplishment to it. Something that means more than the end of the beginning.<\/p>\n

So.. in the words of that ever present library of selections in the travel section of the Barnes and Noble\u2026 Let\u2019s Go!<\/p>\n