Notes from the Road: Paper Memories
How many times have you been riding along on your motorcycle enrapt in the most brilliant, concise and clear thoughts? With each passing mile the answers to life’s questions making themselves plain. Your problems? Solved. The great novel that is your life spills through your mind with brilliant clarity.
Then as soon as you turn the key off, those strokes of genius dissipate into the ether.
Damn.
In even more simple terms, I find that even remembering where I saw something, what was said, what town I passed through on a given day has become more of a challenge. Given that I have always been the type to chronicle things, writing these snippets down when I’m traveling is a natural fit.
This morning I cracked open a little notebook that was in my tankbag and found this gem written in there:
I feel beautiful when I’m riding my motorcycle.
Since I wrote it down, I guess that is something I figured I would forget.
A few years ago, in addition to having little notebooks or pads tucked away in my bag, I started to make little books out of old cardboard and sheets of paper. While I’m traveling I stick scraps of paper, postcards, pamphlets and notes in to them. I seem to make one for each big trip that I take.
Even if I just jot down the most rudimentary outline of information, like the date and a town name – that in conjunction with the photos I took help to jog my memory and keep the story straight.
Do you chronicle your trips while you’re in the middle of them?
As a blogger one of the things that I often struggle with is how to call back older content. There comes a time when posts reach the point of no return. They get their sleeping mask out, curl up with a blanket in a dusty corner of the blog and prepare for a loooong nap.
