Photo of Theresa, about 4 years old.
So I have been researching the Ohio River the last couple of days. A conversation I had Wednesday with a professor planning a course on women's travel narratives got me to thinking about how a woman's travel narrative would differ from a man's. Thelma and Louise comes to mind, but let's not go there for the moment.
Allen christened our boat "Blue Girl" because, well, the boat is blue, and because he wants me to do much inner exploration aboard her.
Today, I found an article about women's narratives on the Internet. This article uses quotes from Dharma Girl: A Road Trip Across the American Generations by Chelsea Cain; I'd never heard of the book, which is now out of print. I liked the following quote from the Dharma Girl:
She doesn’t know it yet, but she is about to run into herself. She is a psychonaut—a voyager into the soul—and since she has read the Tibetan Book of the Dead she will soon realize that in order to find herself, she first has to create a self to identify. She has to tell the story. She has to find the child she was and the girl she became to get the answers she wants. She has to see if she can find what she has lost track of, before she can go on to anything else.
I know that back in December, this is how I was thinking about the Ohio River Journey, as a way of looking back. Looking back as a way to help me to look forward. Since, I've done so much research on the history and geography of the river, that I kind of lost sight of the original intent.
I'm happy today for the reminder.
7 comments:
How much that photo speaks, Theresa. There you are looking over your shoulder with a child's feigned sophistication, the pose IMposed on you by an adult. Now it is your turn to be the adult. Now you will be looking both forward and back in your voyage on the flowing river, looking on your own terms. You can face forwards and backwards, depending on how the spirit moves you, all the while being borne forward with your husband in your life together. I am looking forward to the fruits of that exploration. You are creating for yourself the opportunity to be a psychonaut. What a gift you are giving yourself.
Love, Vicky x
http://www.livejournal.com/users/vxv789/
How serious you were back then. It's more than the pose. It's in your eyes. I don't think it's a coincidence that you came across that article. I think it was given to you, to help you refocus, to take your mind off the academic research and the professorial work and to help you come back to being who you want to be (the inward explorer with the courage to drop the mask). It's amazing sometimes how the universe anticipates us.
This is going to be the adventure of a life time!
What a wonderful picture and how appropriate the name of the boat! It won't be long now and your adventure will begin. I wait in anticipation to hear of your experiences when you get back.
Mary
and what a beautiful blue girl you were. My grandmother kept a picture like that of one of my cousins when she was a young girl in her main bedroom, one cousin with the blue dress, the other in a yellow.
Derek
http://journals.aol.com/deveil/CelebrationofMyExhistance/http://journals.aol.com/deveil/PictureoftheDay/
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.
Cicero (B.C. 106-43)
In every object there is inexhaustible meaning; the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing.
- Thomas Carlyle
What a beautiful girl! Truth shines in her face- despite the pose. Intense eyes, resolute mouth.
What do her hand, dress, hair reveal? What does she see? What is she thinking? What are the events leading to this portrait? How do people react? What does she say? How does her voice sound? What does she hear? What are the smells in her home? Or in this location? What is her favorite place? What are her images of water?
She is the key. What is her secret? Her worst fear? What does she like to touch? What does she need to tell you? What are the moments you must capture? What do you feel when you view this photo? What memories call?
What are the accidents, surprises, crises on your trip? How do you react? How would the girl in the photo respond? What do you learn from change on the way? Does what you learn on the river affect your characters? The focus and rhythm of your writing? How does the child in you inform your writing?
Add these questions to your voyage if time allows as semester ends-
Asking the questions ignites one's own writing as well. Great idea.
Accidently found online journal. Generous, helpful suggestions, insights.
Superb poems. Thank you!
Love Campbell, Ohio, water destinations too.
Good luck in all your adventures!
Bon voyage!
ggw07
I have a song for your journey:
I don't know where that river roams
F Bb
But she goes around the bend
F
Just might roll around the great wide world
C7
Come on home again
F
River runs by my window
Bb F
River runs by my door
Bb F
River runs so sweet
Bb F
Might never roam no more
Bb F Bb F
Might never roam no more
--River Song, by Tom Rush
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