Keep At It
Ten years ago today I started on a bike ride at Roche Harbor, San Juan Island, in the northwest corner of Washington State. Eight weeks later I ended up in Florida, just barely making it into the state. The next year I finished the ride by bicycling the rest of the way to Key West, in September, in 2001, right after 9/11. What was just supposed to be a bike ride to lose weight became a book (Just Keep Pedaling) that turned me into a writer, an author, and now an artist. It is surprising what can happen if you just keep at it. Of course, there are lots of "its" to pick from.
I won't recount the entire tale here. If you want that, join the folks who've hit the library or bought a copy (online for most folks, but there are a few copies available in bookstores on Whidbey Island.)
Following intuition has led me on an interesting journey. The bike ride failed at its goal. I didn't lose any weight, waist size, or body fat. I did manage to miss meals and eat poorly. Middle America cuisine feeds the comfort zone, but it may skip right past nutrition or heart healthy practices.
At the time I was married and to keep my wife from becoming a news outlet I sent out emails as I could. That was possible but sporadic in 2000. The result was 15,000 words of emails, which some writer friends pointed out were 15,000 words of notes. Most books begin with smaller foundations. After months of their encouragement I finally wrote Just Keep Pedaling. It didn't exactly pay off the mortgage. It didn't even pay a cell phone bill.
But I learned that I could write a book, and I realized that I could write better the next time. Some friends encouraged me to sell the photos, but I declined. It wasn't until last week that I finally made the bike ride's slideshow public. Feel free to judge for yourself.
Intuition and serendipity led to writing a series of nature essays about the Cascades, the mountains that are Washington's backbone, or cultural and climatological fence depending on how you want to look at it. I wrote three books because the environmental and cultural climates are so different: the west side (Barclay Lake) is wet, urban, and more liberal than the east side (Merritt Lake) which is dry, rural, and more conservative. The lake in the middle (Lake Valhalla) is under snow for the majority of the year and the wildest of the three. Those books became my first Twelve Months series and did well with Editor's Choice awards and such. I included photos because of the urging from the previous book. Sold a few books. Sold a few photos.
Enough folks in the audience at book talks and slideshows asked how I could find the time to do all of this at the rate of about a book a year. Well, I told them, I retired early. Granted it was to a frugal lifestyle, but it freed up the time to write and photograph what I experienced as I roamed the world. They encouraged me to write the book about retiring early, oh and by the way, keep up the good work with the photos.
I'd moved to Whidbey Island after my divorce (sad story not to be told here). You can't make this stuff up, but the best selling author of one of the books that inspired me (Vicki Robin of Your Money or Your Life) moved into the same neighborhood about the same time. I met her. We talked. She encouraged me. I couldn't ignore such advice. But I also couldn't continue writing Twelve Month books at the same time that I was writing Dream. Invest. Live. So, I didn't.
Instead of writing a nature essay about Whidbey throughout the year, I produced a photo essay. But, I'd learned from capturing the Cascades that a region isn't a spot, so to capture Whidbey would take a series of photo essays. I picked five - a five year project of five twelve month studies, one study at each of five places. They’ve been in galleries (online and real world) and are books as well.
Last night was the premiere of the third in the series, Twelve Months at Admiralty Head. Lots of work went into it. Art found some new homes. I am glad.
This is not meant as a prideful display of my efforts. This is more an example of what happens when an idea is followed through, even when the destination isn't clear. I didn't imagine that a bike ride to lose weight would result in a gallery show of my photographs. If ten years ago I'd pointed at yesterday's premiere as a target I would've missed the target and missed a lot of life.
Too often we pick targets and obsess about them. Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker's to the Galaxy fame also wrote a detective series about Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. His main character is not a linear fellow and I love one of his quotes.
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be."
Whether it is people, corporations, charities, or governments, promises and expectations can be traps. American Superconductor (AMSC) is succeeding because of wind power, not superconductors. Politicians are grilled and can be tormented by their campaigns, instead of being measured against making life better or congratulated for minimizing disasters. Charities can have unintended consequences, and people can worry too much about not knowing where to turn or which way to steer. None of us can tell the future, and sometimes, probably frequently, the best hope we have is to point in a positive direction and keep moving. Just Keep Pedaling. Keep at it, even if you won't know what "it" is.
Saturday, September 4, 2010