The first book I purchased after moving to northern California was The Princess Bride. At the time I was living up in Sonoma County. Specifically, I was in a tent in the yard of an old high school classmate from New York State who I had not seen in ten years. I had expected to visit for a night or two before continuing on to the city, but he convinced me to work two weeks of harvest at his winery sorting grapes. It was barely any pay, but at the least I could put some money in my pocket before starting out in the most expensive city in the world. They didn't need my help for about two weeks though, so I found myself with more time than I knew what to do with. I was beyond exhausted from my 100 day journey across America, so it was a much needed rest before what I had no idea would be the most difficult and intense work experience of my life. I spent a lot of time throwing a ball to his dog and having it enthusiastically return it to me, going to the ocean and reading Leaves of Grass, and getting to know my host, as we weren't really friends back in the day. I also couch surfed with strangers in Oakland on two separate occasions, and visited San Francisco.
In fact, on my 101st day on the road I drove down to San Francisco simply to be there. I couldn't really think of anything to do though. I didn't really know why I was moving to San Francisco. I had a lot of ideas of finding a culture and group of friends that was enthusiastic about creativity, imagination and wisdom when applied to mystery and wonder. I wanted to be on the cutting edge. The Bay Area had that reputation, from the 1960s hippie and free speech movement to the personal computer and tech revolutions. Lately I couldn't think of anything amazing that San Francisco was doing other than being a really relaxed open-minded place to live, but I thought I should explore it anyway.
So my first mission to the city involved a pilgrimage to City Lights Bookstore on Columbus Avenue. This is a very famous bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He got started during the beat era, and writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso frequented the area. My dad visited it once and bought me a shirt, so I decided to go there the first time I traveled through America and visited San Francisco, back in 2010.
Once I got to the bookstore I wasn't sure what I wanted to buy. I already had two books from my journey that I had yet to finish, and I didn't want anything negative to sully my mood. I don't like negative books when I'm on journeys or transitioning, and, unfortunately, the majority of literature out there is negative because life is often negative and the arts are a way of channeling and cleansing those negative emotions. Even so, I wanted something positive to start out in the area.
I searched and searched and finally realized which book I wanted. I asked the clerk for The Princess Bride and found the only copy on the shelf.
Later I returned to my tent, where my host was having a dinner for the two new interns at the winery. I had no idea at the time just how much and how long I would be working with them.
I still had a lot of time before harvest officially began on September 24th, so I read the book.
If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. However, the book is a little different. The author continually interrupts the narrative to talk about the process of writing the book. The main difference between the book and the movie is that although everything works out swimmingly in both versions, the book spends a lot of time reminding the reader that life always continues, and that every time you triumph, you have to continue to face the challenges that life brings. Sure, Westley and Buttercup's true love flourishes in the long run, but they still have to deal with the reality that seems to walk side-by-side with their fantasy (which really just means fantastic reality).
My reality during harvest was that I was living in a tent in the yard of someone I somewhat knew but not really, had to work 10-16 hours every day, and got paid $10 an hour to do it (after two weeks I got a two dollar raise). I used heavy machinery or stood raking grapes nearly constantly, and most of the time I felt very good. Much of the time I felt completely exhausted as well. That was more toward the end. But every night, my reality was that I crawled back into my tent and sleeping bag, living on my credit card while I waited for my first pay check, and realizing that despite my truly attainable dreams of being an influential human being and enjoyable storyteller, I was currently poor, living on the ground and virtually anonymous in the literary world. That's when fantasy came in. Every once in a while I'd put on my headlamp and do my best to pry open The Princess Bride with my thumbs which could barely move after doing hours upon hours of punch-down's, raking grapes, carrying buckets of dry ice and squeezing hoses to wash out grape barrels, so that all the nice people could take a load off and enjoy some delicious grape juice for adults.
There's a whole section in William Goldman's book that isn't in the movie. At the beginning, Buttercup goes to find Westley in his tiny little hovel. All he has is a small candle and a stack of books next to his straw bed on the floor. She confesses her love to him, and he doesn't say a word. He simply closes the door in her face. She's devastated. She can't believe she put herself out there like that and he didn't even respond.
"Not even one word. He hadn't had the decency for that. 'Sorry,' he could have said. Would it have ruined him to say 'sorry'? 'Too late,' he could have said. Why couldn't he at least have said something?" (Goldman 61)
He goes to talk to her again and she pretends that it was a joke and never happened, and she apologized for doing it so convincingly. He tells her he's leaving, so she assumes he's in love with someone else, and adds:
Buttercup: "Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited. You think people can't get tired of you, well you're wrong, they can, and she will, besides you're too poor."
Westley: "I'm going to America. To seek my fortune. There is great opportunity in America. I'm going to take advantage of it. I've been training myself. In my hovel. I've taught myself not to need sleep. A few hours only. I'll take a ten-hour-a-day job and then I'll take another ten-hour-a-day job and I'll save every penny from both except what I need to eat and keep strong." (Goldman 62)
Back then it only took a little hyperbole to make that passage fit perfectly with my life's story. Right now not so much, although I've learned that you don't necessarily need an extra job to be working as hard as you can for your dream. Although I write every day, I am still recovering from the craziness of August and early September. Uncertainty about where you live and where you're going in life isn't the best way to approach your first true book, even if you already have pages upon pages of outlines and chapters that are good but basically need to be completely re-written if the whole thing is going to work together. But harvest starts with the solstice...
Today I showed my class the film The Princess Bride. Many of them were actually on a field trip run by a different teacher, so I figured it would be a good way to wind down the week. Half of the students loved it, and half of them slept with their heads on their desks. I personally love the movie because it combines adventure, romance, humor, magic, drama and action. The ingredients for any great story, whether reality or fantasy.
"I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body." (Goldman 63)
True. True. Very true.
But who are "you"?
Are you in New York? Are you real? I am real. At least I think so. Either way, I am thinking about New York, and my return. I am reading the great story tellers who have guided me and encouraged me to live my fantasy through reality. Besides, William Goldman's "Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure" wasn't the only book I read with stiff thumbs and a headlamp in my tent at night during harvest. The Alchemist was always nearby as well. I don't know if it was reality or fantasy, but I liked thinking that maybe there was a woman wondering where I was at the time and hoping I was okay, just as I hoped I was working hard for her. Whatever it is, life feels better that way. You do much better work, that's for sure. Then again, working at a winery in the California country side is a much different endeavor from working and writing a book in New York City. I wonder what that whole winery business was about anyway...
"Are you crazy? What did you do that for?”
Enthusiasm! I should be so lucky to be working so hard on my dream with this body and creating whatever it is I imagine with this brain. I feel good about life. I feel very good. You can't force these things. We feel them, and we act accordingly, harnessing our passions fueled by romantic inspiration to share the highest joy possible.
Thanks to the magic of poetry that occurred throughout this journey, I was able to experience an untold amount of joy when the movie began and I realized that the first scene in The Princess Bride is a baseball video game being played on a television screen. The next thing you see is a boy wearing a shirt that says, "BEAR."
In fact, on my 101st day on the road I drove down to San Francisco simply to be there. I couldn't really think of anything to do though. I didn't really know why I was moving to San Francisco. I had a lot of ideas of finding a culture and group of friends that was enthusiastic about creativity, imagination and wisdom when applied to mystery and wonder. I wanted to be on the cutting edge. The Bay Area had that reputation, from the 1960s hippie and free speech movement to the personal computer and tech revolutions. Lately I couldn't think of anything amazing that San Francisco was doing other than being a really relaxed open-minded place to live, but I thought I should explore it anyway.
So my first mission to the city involved a pilgrimage to City Lights Bookstore on Columbus Avenue. This is a very famous bookstore founded by poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He got started during the beat era, and writers like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso frequented the area. My dad visited it once and bought me a shirt, so I decided to go there the first time I traveled through America and visited San Francisco, back in 2010.
Once I got to the bookstore I wasn't sure what I wanted to buy. I already had two books from my journey that I had yet to finish, and I didn't want anything negative to sully my mood. I don't like negative books when I'm on journeys or transitioning, and, unfortunately, the majority of literature out there is negative because life is often negative and the arts are a way of channeling and cleansing those negative emotions. Even so, I wanted something positive to start out in the area.
I searched and searched and finally realized which book I wanted. I asked the clerk for The Princess Bride and found the only copy on the shelf.
Later I returned to my tent, where my host was having a dinner for the two new interns at the winery. I had no idea at the time just how much and how long I would be working with them.
I still had a lot of time before harvest officially began on September 24th, so I read the book.
If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about. However, the book is a little different. The author continually interrupts the narrative to talk about the process of writing the book. The main difference between the book and the movie is that although everything works out swimmingly in both versions, the book spends a lot of time reminding the reader that life always continues, and that every time you triumph, you have to continue to face the challenges that life brings. Sure, Westley and Buttercup's true love flourishes in the long run, but they still have to deal with the reality that seems to walk side-by-side with their fantasy (which really just means fantastic reality).
My reality during harvest was that I was living in a tent in the yard of someone I somewhat knew but not really, had to work 10-16 hours every day, and got paid $10 an hour to do it (after two weeks I got a two dollar raise). I used heavy machinery or stood raking grapes nearly constantly, and most of the time I felt very good. Much of the time I felt completely exhausted as well. That was more toward the end. But every night, my reality was that I crawled back into my tent and sleeping bag, living on my credit card while I waited for my first pay check, and realizing that despite my truly attainable dreams of being an influential human being and enjoyable storyteller, I was currently poor, living on the ground and virtually anonymous in the literary world. That's when fantasy came in. Every once in a while I'd put on my headlamp and do my best to pry open The Princess Bride with my thumbs which could barely move after doing hours upon hours of punch-down's, raking grapes, carrying buckets of dry ice and squeezing hoses to wash out grape barrels, so that all the nice people could take a load off and enjoy some delicious grape juice for adults.
There's a whole section in William Goldman's book that isn't in the movie. At the beginning, Buttercup goes to find Westley in his tiny little hovel. All he has is a small candle and a stack of books next to his straw bed on the floor. She confesses her love to him, and he doesn't say a word. He simply closes the door in her face. She's devastated. She can't believe she put herself out there like that and he didn't even respond.
"Not even one word. He hadn't had the decency for that. 'Sorry,' he could have said. Would it have ruined him to say 'sorry'? 'Too late,' he could have said. Why couldn't he at least have said something?" (Goldman 61)
He goes to talk to her again and she pretends that it was a joke and never happened, and she apologized for doing it so convincingly. He tells her he's leaving, so she assumes he's in love with someone else, and adds:
Buttercup: "Just because you're beautiful and perfect, it's made you conceited. You think people can't get tired of you, well you're wrong, they can, and she will, besides you're too poor."
Westley: "I'm going to America. To seek my fortune. There is great opportunity in America. I'm going to take advantage of it. I've been training myself. In my hovel. I've taught myself not to need sleep. A few hours only. I'll take a ten-hour-a-day job and then I'll take another ten-hour-a-day job and I'll save every penny from both except what I need to eat and keep strong." (Goldman 62)
Back then it only took a little hyperbole to make that passage fit perfectly with my life's story. Right now not so much, although I've learned that you don't necessarily need an extra job to be working as hard as you can for your dream. Although I write every day, I am still recovering from the craziness of August and early September. Uncertainty about where you live and where you're going in life isn't the best way to approach your first true book, even if you already have pages upon pages of outlines and chapters that are good but basically need to be completely re-written if the whole thing is going to work together. But harvest starts with the solstice...
Today I showed my class the film The Princess Bride. Many of them were actually on a field trip run by a different teacher, so I figured it would be a good way to wind down the week. Half of the students loved it, and half of them slept with their heads on their desks. I personally love the movie because it combines adventure, romance, humor, magic, drama and action. The ingredients for any great story, whether reality or fantasy.
"I have stayed these years in my hovel because of you. I have taught myself languages because of you. I have made my body strong because I thought you might be pleased by a strong body." (Goldman 63)
True. True. Very true.
But who are "you"?
Are you in New York? Are you real? I am real. At least I think so. Either way, I am thinking about New York, and my return. I am reading the great story tellers who have guided me and encouraged me to live my fantasy through reality. Besides, William Goldman's "Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure" wasn't the only book I read with stiff thumbs and a headlamp in my tent at night during harvest. The Alchemist was always nearby as well. I don't know if it was reality or fantasy, but I liked thinking that maybe there was a woman wondering where I was at the time and hoping I was okay, just as I hoped I was working hard for her. Whatever it is, life feels better that way. You do much better work, that's for sure. Then again, working at a winery in the California country side is a much different endeavor from working and writing a book in New York City. I wonder what that whole winery business was about anyway...
"Are you crazy? What did you do that for?”
"To
show you one of life’s simple lessons,” the alchemist answered. “When you possess great treasures within you,
and try to tell others of them, seldom are you believed.”
They
continued across the desert. With every
day that passed, the boy’s heart became more and more silent. It no longer wanted to know about things of
the past or future; it was content simply to contemplate the desert, and to
drink with the boy from the Soul of the World.
The boy and his heart had become friends, and neither was capable now of
betraying the other.
When
his heart spoke to him, it was to provide a stimulus to the boy, and to give
him strength, because the days of silence there in the desert were
wearisome. His heart told the boy what
his strongest qualities were: his courage in having given up his sheep and in
trying to live out his Personal Legend, and his enthusiasm during the time he
had worked at the crystal shop. (Coehlo 134)
Thanks to the magic of poetry that occurred throughout this journey, I was able to experience an untold amount of joy when the movie began and I realized that the first scene in The Princess Bride is a baseball video game being played on a television screen. The next thing you see is a boy wearing a shirt that says, "BEAR."
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