the righteous brew – for the urban mountaineer

The open road. No ties to anything except adventure and friendship. No debt. No time restraint. While reading Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road,” I couldn’t help but indulge in the dream of living as a liberated adventurer on an endless road. So many things in life, especially in culture, bind us down. Our adventures are experienced as mini weekend vacations or, if you’re lucky, a 2-week endeavor. But as you depart for your “time away,” the reality of its brevity will always sit in the back of your mind – keeping you from bliss.

It’s not too often that I wish I was a traveling bum, but it’s also not a rare, foreign thought. The more you acquire – the more you’re held down. For some it’s a house, for others it’s furniture, and yet for others it’s money and its corresponding obligations. I don’t own a house or much furniture. But I have a small amount of debt that reminds me of its existence every month in the form of neatly printed pieces of paper asking for money. And its understandable, I asked them for money or a service and so now they come to me asking for it back. But what if I didn’t have bills? What if I didn’t have a phone? What if I had no taxable income? Sounds un-American, but at the same time sounds amazing…at least to me.

I have moved around a lot in the past few years – different cities, different jobs, different friends, different challenges. I have received my fair share (if not more) of critique for my wandering spirit. Some say that I’m not content or I’m pessimistic and that explains my eagerness to drop it all, pack it up, and try something new. I find contentment in most everything, every place, every person. Any discouragement I’ve experienced has been directly correlated to my employment…which is no fault but my own. Religion is a terrible business to get into – but that’s a topic for a later time.

After reading “On The Road”, I noticed that the feeling of the open road does not only come from traveling around with a few friends, no money, and a loose plan. It’s also a state of mind. What are the things I am committed to that keep me bound. Obviously, there are some great things that can bind you- love, family, friends, a mission. But I’m beginning to realize that those things don’t have to be thought of as “binding.” I hope that when I experience love and build a family that I won’t think of it as obligations, but as an adventure – wandering through new experiences. It’s depressing for me to think of love and family and friends and a “life mission” as restricting. But so many of us do.

As always, I’m starting a new phase of my adventure. I don’t call it a new adventure or a new beginning – because I’ve already begun – I was born. Each event, each person, each experience has led me to the next moment and the next and the next. I’m excited to be in school again. To be studying subjects that induce curiosity and lead to the proper training to care for people. I’m excited for the possibility of reuniting with Chicago and my friends who call it home. Now I just hope to find love and companionship to travel the open road.