I made a pilgrimage to Long Island. A few Sundays ago, driving east (not on my bicycle), with a copy of What Else But Home rubber banded to a letter I'd written to Peter Matthiessen. Telling him I'd carried The Snow Leopard and Michael Herr's Dispatches dog-eared in my backpack for a year after business left me, post 9-11. Both books are transcendent. I hoped, if I touched them long enough, understood how Matthiessen and Herr painted their words across a sentence, a paragraph and page, I'd find the way to write a beautiful book growing from my own sense of pace, cadence. I left "What Else But Home, the letter, on a doorstep outside a zendo, requesting a blurb. I'd written my phone number and email. Mr. Matthiessen hasn't responded. Maybe he's traveling now. I told him how much I've admired his lifetime of writing. Maybe he doesn't respond to silly packages left anonymously on zendo steps. I wish he would, but the book is coming out August 3rd regardless. It rained the day after I set the package down, and I hope the tape at the top of the envelope held.
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"I left What Else But Home, the letter, on a doorstep outside a zendo, requesting a blurb. I'd written my phone number and email. Mr. Matthiessen hasn't responded. Maybe he's traveling now. I told him how much I've admired his lifetime of writing. Maybe he doesn't respond to silly packages left anonymously on zendo steps."
Not sure what an anonymous autobiographical book is, especially considering it is accompanied by an email address and a phone number- not sure what Michael is referring to when he says a zendo- does he mean a Zen meditation center- if so then not sure why this person would even find this envelop containing a copy of his transcript. Not sure if someone else would just pick the package up. Not sure if using confusing words will limit the audience- especially considering the book is about a connection between the projects and the penthouse. This language eliminates most of the project people. hmmm.
What I am sure of is that the package did not look silly. What I am sure of is that now Michael will get a deeper understanding into what it means to be a struggling creative person attempting to get the world to comprehend a private vision. I am sure he will get a deeper understanding into what it is like to stand alone without any kind of protection- to expose your whole self- your heart- your soul- your balls- all laying bare on the line- unguarded- unprotected. Placing a creative work out there has non of the protection of the business world, or the academic world. There is a place where education, money, power, the penthouse all stop being assets to the creative process.
I wish him safe sailing as he attempts to launch his small craft into the stormy seas of exposed creativity- he will get a better feeling for what Life at Sea is Hard means- or maybe not- could be he will just enter the blissful successful world of a JK Rowling. Anyway safe sailing and good luck. thanks clayton.