Orion’s Cartwheels3

There are three ways of presenting anything.
The first is to present everything. The
second is to present what people want.
The third is to present what will serve them
best.
If you present everything, the result may be
surfeit. If you present what people want, it
may choke them. If you present what will
serve them best, the worst is that,
misunderstanding, they may oppose you.
But if you have served them thus, whatever
the appearances, you have served them
and you, too, must benefit, whatever the
appearances.

“Aim for knowledge. If you become poor it
will be wealth for you. If you become rich it
will adorn you”
El-Zubeir, son of Abu-Bakr

If you were one of the ten million buttercups flirting with bees justIf you were one of the ten million buttercups flirting with bees just
west of Winnipeg on July 17west of Winnipeg on July 17thth
, 1980, you would have noticed, 1980, you would have noticed
the cloud of dust. It came sideways off the too large rearthe cloud of dust. It came sideways off the too large rear
radials of the lime green Barracuda rocking to a halt on theradials of the lime green Barracuda rocking to a halt on the
shoulder of the TransCanada Highway.shoulder of the TransCanada Highway.
““Are you sure you want to do this?” , she askedAre you sure you want to do this?” , she asked
““I’m sure.” He closed the door as gently as he could.I’m sure.” He closed the door as gently as he could.
The dust returned and then there was silence. This was brokenThe dust returned and then there was silence. This was broken
first by the noise of the sun’s heat on his forehead. It causefirst by the noise of the sun’s heat on his forehead. It cause
him to squint. And then he heard the birds. He was smilinghim to squint. And then he heard the birds. He was smiling
and humming to himself when the little red truck came overand humming to himself when the little red truck came over
the rise. His right hand performed a maneuver it had neverthe rise. His right hand performed a maneuver it had never
done before. Levitating into the prairie summer sky, his thumbdone before. Levitating into the prairie summer sky, his thumb
carved an arc . To his amazement, the truck hesitated like acarved an arc . To his amazement, the truck hesitated like a
wounded animal and came to rest beside him.wounded animal and came to rest beside him.
““Where you goin’?”, he grunted.Where you goin’?”, he grunted.
““Around the world.Around the world.
““Well, I’m goin’ as far as Morris. That’s about forty miles.”Well, I’m goin’ as far as Morris. That’s about forty miles.”
He got in. Nothing was ever the same again.He got in. Nothing was ever the same again.

Thumb
def. The short,
thick first or
most preaxial
digit of the
human hand,
differing from
the other
fingers by
having two
phalanges and
greater

“Whatever you can do, or dream you
can, begin it. Boldness has genius,
power and magic in it.”
Goethe

Hitchhiking Is
Hitchhiking is an open road
Hitchhiking is window without glass
Hitchhiking is loneliness
Hitchhiking is drifting through time and space
Hitchhiking is finding a corner to call your own
Hitchhiking is not unlike the seasons, the tides
Hitchhiking is believing you’re Walt Whitman
Hitchhiking is being told you’re nothing but a bum
Hitchhiking is learning to cope
Hitchhiking is getting it all together
Hitchhiking is seeing it all fall apart
Hitchhiking is knowing no words but “Thank you”
Hitchhiking is discovering how dark is dark
Hitchhiking is discovering your name whispered in
forests
Hitchhiking is rolling out of ice cream wagons into

Hitchhiking is losing your last pair of pants
Hitchhiking is going naked
Hitchhiking is hearing something crack in the bottom of
your pack
Hitchhiking is poetry
Hitchhiking is only a dream
Hitchhiking is falling skywards
Hitchhiking is finding doors locked
Hitchhiking is learning combinations
Hitchhiking is a constant erection
Hitchhiking is a royal pain in the ass
Hitchhiking is the sort of thing that makes you long for
chicken soup
Hitchhiking is food for thought
Hitchhiking is nourishment for the soul
Hitchhiking is leaves in the wind
Hitchhiking is an open road Paul Coopersmith,
RULE

Moe: “How you going to get to South
America?”
Wink: “Hitch to Vancouver and hang a left”

“I began to hitchhike in something akin to
geological time: slow, ancient, vast.
Daylight, I would sleep in ditches and
under bushes, crawling out in the
afternoon like the first fish crawling out
from the sea, stopping car after car and
often as not refusing their lift, riding only
a mile and starting over again. I removed
the freeway from its temporal context.
Overpasses, clover leafs exit ramps took
on the personality of Mayan ruins for me.
Without destination, without cessation,
my run was often silent and empty; there
were no increments, no arbitrary

Then I began to juxtapose slow extended
runs with short, furiously fast ones- until I
could compose melodies, concerti, entire
symphonies of hitch. When poor Jack
Kerouac heard about this, he got drunk
for a week. I added dimensions to
hitchhiking that others could not even
understand. In the Age of the
Automobile- and nothing has shaped our
culture like the motor car- there have been
many great drivers but only one great
passenger. I have hitched over every state
and half the nations, through blizzards and
under rainbows, in deserts and cities,

There is no road that did not expect me.
Fields of daisies bowed and gas pumps
gurgled when I passed by. Every moo cow
dipped toward me her full udder. With me,
something different and deep, in bright
focus and pointing the way, arrived in the
practice of hitchhiking. I am the spirit and
the heart of hitchhiking. I am its cortex
and its medulla, I am its foundation and its
culmination, I am the jewel in its lotus.
And when I am really moving, stopping car
after car after car, moving so freely, so
clearly, so delicately that even the sex
maniacs and cops can only blink and let me
pass, then I embody the rhythms of the

“The road must eventually lead to the whole
world”
Dean Moriarty in ON THE

“It was the very essence of his life to be a
solitary achievement, accomplished not by
hermit-like withdrawal with its silence and
immobility, but by a system of restless
wandering, by the detachment of an
impermanent dweller amongst changing
scenes. In this scheme he had perceived the
means of passing through life without
suffering and almost without a single care
in the world- invulnerable because elusive.”
Joseph Conrad,
VICTORY

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in
Kansas anymore”
Dorothy, arriving in Oz

“With a hat on my
head
And straw sandals
on my feet
I met on the road
The end of the
year”
Basho

“How often have you taxed yourself with
journeys before sunrise and in the twilight
(traveling both by land and by sea)
Many a youth has gone no more than a short
step or two for his daily bread yet you find
that in the gamble (of life he has been a
success)
Don’t despair, even though the search be
long; if you seek refuge (in patience you
will find relief)
When in human affairs the ways forward are
blocked, patience will open (every one
which was blocked)”

“A towel is about the most massively useful thing
an interstellar hitchhiker can have. A towel has
immense psychological value. For some reason,
if a nonhitchhiker discovers that a hitchhiker has
a towel with him, he will automatically assume
that he is also in possession of a toothbrush,
face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask,
compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet
weather gear, space suit, etc. Furthermore, the
strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of
these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker
might have accidentally have ‘lost’. What the
strag will think is that any man who can hitch the
length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum
it, struggle against terrible odds, win through,
and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man
to be reckoned with.”

“What are you
doing this long
journey for?”, the
teacher asked me.
“To find out”, I
answered…
“But what is it you
wish to find out?”,
he persisted.
“Why I am doing it.”
Ted Simon,
JUPITER”S
TRAVELS

“Perdition catch all the guides”
Mark Twain

“There was no hitchhiking in France
that I could see.”
Jack Kerouac, LONESOME
TRAVELLER

“I took a kimono off
To feel lighter
Only putting it in the load
On my back”
Basho

The odyssey
continues
next time
when…

…our hero enters the evil empire…

…has many exotic adventures…

“In my childhood nobody talked about
myths and legends. They were just
stories, the job of explaining life was left
to science, but science eventually failed
the test. So did politics, of course. And
love. And property. And Journalism just
went on begging the question.
So here I am, still looking for an
explanation, acting out those childhood
stories which, perhaps, were always the
most satisfying after all; making myself the
hero of my own myth.”

Orion’s Cartwheels3

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Orion’s Cartwheels3

Similar to Orion’s Cartwheels3 (9)

More from Lawrence Winkler

More from Lawrence Winkler (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Orion’s Cartwheels3