Moments of Clarity Are Not Answers began in November 2010 as a space for me to share some fragments of my journey. I hit the road on September 18th 2010, a few months after graduating from college, and lived as a nomad for two years, traveling by car, bus, train, foot, and thumb with a pack and a guitar and rarely more than a few dollars in my pocket, guided by intuition, dependent upon providence, wandering aimfully, adrift in the world and rooted within myself. Following my time on the road, I continued to experiment with creative ways of living, always in search of a conscious path true to my own self and my commitment to my development as an artist and activist. I’ve explored themes such as discipline & spontaneity, community & solitude, wanderlust & home, the nature of society, non-dependence on money, faith & prayer, beauty & gratitude, the relationship between art & life, etc. Over the course of my journey I’ve maintained this blog (though at times sporadically) in order to honor, through writing, some of what I’ve had the privilege to experience; I, like all artists, hope that by sharing my work, I may somehow contribute to the world here and there a shard or two of beauty.
August 2014
Most of this blog documents my first two years on the road, during which time I traveled some sixty thousand miles across North America, coast to coast seven times, as far north as Alaska and as far south as Haiti. I’ve lived in a gazebo on the banks of the Yukon River, fasted in the desert of south central California, been arrested in protests, played music on the streets, trekked to the bus from Into the Wild, slept under bridges, and seen the northern lights. I’ve laughed with people I just met, cried on the side of the road, tried to learn how to live without money, explored ideas like home and freedom and truth, challenged myself in new ways, fought fears, written poems, eaten wild blackberries, and cultivated deep roots within myself. I’ve trusted people I didn’t know, made friends, lost friends, called ambulances, planted seeds, prayed, stood beneath the cold clear Milky Way, and meditated beside the sea.
Some Old Favorites:
Fairbanks Bus 142 (Alaska – Oct 2011)
“As I strap my pack together beneath the unfurling gray Alaskan sky, sheets of wind billow across the marbled taiga into which Stampede Trail disappears…”
The Road to Inuvik (Yukon Territory – Sep 2011)
“The falling sun cracks open upon gray shards of mountain and spills into crevasses. The last of the sunlight fades just before midnight…”
Grand Tetons (Jackson, Wyoming – Aug 2011)
“I limp into the ER with a bloody napkin pressed to my leg…”
Rockies (Indian Peaks Wilderness, Colorado – July 2011)
“Finally, the rains pass. I emerge from my tent into a raging mountain sunset…”
More Inwardly Focused Pieces:
Other Unfamiliar City Streets (Edmonton, Alberta – Sep 2011)
“We all need sometimes to walk alone and barefoot down dark and unfamiliar streets…”
The Birth of 2011 (Joshua Tree, California – Jan 2011)
“At dawn I rise and begin fasting. The scent of fire still lingers as light fills the sky…”
Questions of the Soul (Gunnison, Colorado – Jul 2012
“There is a problem with this blog. It has become stale and unoriginal…”
More Artistic Writing:
September (West – Jul 2012)
“Hitchhiked a thousand miles and I’m still Here…”
Feathers (Tappan Zee Bridge – Jun 2011)
“The ones who came here on some moonless night, to park their cars at the center of the bridge, to stand at the edge with the wind in their faces looking down into the dark river…”
Greyhound (Florida coast – Apr 2012)
“The paramedics are squinting at the label of an empty pill bottle. Droplets of rain on the bus windows flash red and blue…”
wind-feathered rivers&tides (Northern California coast – Sep 2012)
“Bones of the pier looked ghostly poking from land, algae hanging from decaying crossbeams in the swirling fog…”
Fun Pieces:
Letter to a Judge (Oct 2011)
After a minor car accident north of Seattle (I actually sent it)
Falling In Love with a Girl on the Subway (New York City – Feb 2012)
“We could get a cup of coffee and exchange numbers and maybe make love for hours and hours…”
Tribe (Aug 2012)
“Why sleep in a $300,000 house // when you could sleep under a $6 million bridge?”
Hitchhiking Stories:
4 Days, 970 Miles, 24 Rides: A Hitchhike from Memphis, TN to Washington, D.C. (part 1 of 4) (Apr 2012)
“In under 30 minutes, a black Nissan SUV skids to a halt into the shoulder ahead of me, gravel crunching beneath tires…”
Dead Bird Bridge (Wyoming – Jul 2012)
A hitchhike from Rapid City, SD to Boulder, CO
Colors and Light (Idaho & Oregon – Jul 2012)
“Strummed ukulele at 70 miles an hour in the back of the pickup truck…”
Companions on the Road:
Banff (Banff, Alberta – Aug 2011)
“…from the speakers of the Escalade as the three of us stand outside with our plastic cups of red wine, shivering under the mad raging night sky…”
Missoula: The Place Where I (Really) Start Feeling Like a Traveler (Missoula, Montana – Aug 2011)
“There are at least ten of us sitting in a circle, half of us barefoot, half dreadlocked, we’ve got guitars and harmonicas, the mandolin, an accordion, a washboard, a ukulele, my jug-drum…”
The Yukon (Dawson City, Yukon Territory – Sep 2011)
“We commandeer a gazebo in the campground across the river, and we live out there amongst the aspens on the outskirts of society like woodsmen of the old days…”
Down the Alaska Highway (part 2) (British Columbia – Oct 2011)
“’You boys should try some of this moose sausage, eh?’ He throws another dozen huge slices onto the stove…”
Down the Grey Coast (Oregon coast – Nov 2011)
“In the dark, beyond the “Caution: Dangerous Waves Possible” sign, we drank IPAs as the sea snuck up on us…”
Beautiful Moments:
Storm (Wheatland, Wyoming – Jul 2012)
“I spun around and around in wonder, taking it all in, the blue-gray sheets of rain falling through bleeding orange light…”
Breathing with the Universe (New Mexico – Jun 2011)
“At first I do not comprehend what I am seeing. And then, as it grows, I realize with a start that this is the moon, the blood orange moon…”
Roots (Mount Shasta City, California – Aug 2012)
“The moonlight fell through the redwoods into the clearing…”
Shortest Pieces:
Wildfire (Colorado Rockies – Jul 2012)
“Colors of dusk, filtered through smoke, bleed into the horizon: the fiery moon rises through silver wisps of cloud…”
Here (Mississippi coastline – Feb 2011)
“Here I am, where I have always been…”
i sat outside a truck stop (Mountain Home, Idaho – Jul 2012)
“i just sat there for 3 days slumped on the ground leaning against my pack strumming my ukulele absently, laughing…”
Moments of Clarity Are Not Answers 