High Altitude Writing

While the posting of blogs from Beijing during the Olympic Games was my first experience sharing my work with a broad audience, my attempts at writing started much earlier.  For all of my working life I was what is called a “road warrior”—a globetrotter who is constantly traveling in pursuit of some business goal. 

My recent trip to Ireland, which was admittedly all pleasure and no business, marked my 92nd trip across the Atlantic. The total of my flights to Asia, the South Pacific and South America is nearly that high as well.

That’s a lot of mind-numbing hours sitting in an airplane—hundreds, even thousands of hours, when domestic travel is included. So I started to punctuate my reading and movie-watching with writing. Since much of this travel took place before the arrival of laptops and tablets, I have years of notebooks filled with my scribbling.

Photo of PamAm Boeing 747-1007 via raggidoll on Photobucket.com

Photo of PamAm Boeing 747-1007 via raggidoll on Photobucket.com

The subjects of my writing covered a broad range—from story plots, to philosophy, to new product ideas (I envisioned MTV years before it appeared on TV and decades before it de-composed into the rotten state it exists in today), to poems and song lyrics. Having recently reviewed my archives, I am sad to announce that there is absolutely nothing there worthy of repetition—it’s the journey that matters, after all, isn’t it?

One thing I have never tried is writing about all the incredible places I’ve visited. I am a traveling writer, not a travel writer. If ever I do give it a try one day, it will be due to my frustration with the quality and lack of creativity in most of the travel writing I read. No charming B&B’s or must-see castle ruins for me.  I’ll probably focus on the getting there and how to not waste those boring hours you must endure to reach a far-away destination and then bring yourself back to your everyday reality.

David YarboroughComment