Almost Famous

I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the fourth time.  I just finished reading Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson. I realized while reading Richardson's book that I had forgotten many important details of Pirsig's  trip. I also realized that  even after reading the book three times, there was much I didn't understand to begin with. How is it possible that I overlooked so many very important particulars of the trip after reading the book three times?  Obviously it is possible, so I've decided to read it again.

After reading Chapter One just now, there are so many fabulous quotes already.  But it's not his trip that is so significant. It's my trip. Pirsig's journey kicks up so  much in me.   There is plenty of material just in Chapter One to frame "the-story-of-my-life."

On page 1 Pirsig says, "I'm happy to be riding back into this country. It is a kind of nowhere famous for nothing at all and has an appeal because of just that." The irony of this is what Pirsig said about these roads was true at the time, but his book made their rural route quite famous. Since his book was published in 1974 a multitude of people on motorcycles and automobiles have retraced this route.  Each of them had their own reasons for making the trip. Some, like Richardson, have published their own account of the ride.  Motorcycle Maintenance has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.  When you consider that many of these books were passed along from friend to friend, the number of people who have read it is quite staggering.

When I was a teenager and into my twenties, I had a deep desire to become famous. I decided that the only way to achieve an authentic existence was to become a household word.  Quick on the heels of that desire was the realization that I probably never would be famous. Looking at famous athletes, entertainers, politicians and humanitarians I didn't see myself  becoming a celebrity in any of those fields. In other words, very early in my life I set myself up with a personal and vocational contradiction, I also set myself up  for failure and frustration.

Since 1974 Pirsig has gained millions of devoted followers, but he upset a lot of people along the way.  As he describes the trip, the people on the trip, the people they met along the way and his innermost thoughts during the trip, he is brutally honest. Many people, especially his three companions, including his eleven year old son,  were not very pleased with his descriptions of them and their attitudes. Robert Pirsig is not the first author to pay a heavy price for his success.

Robert Pirsig said, "I'm happy to be riding back into  this country."  I'm happy to begin this trip again too.  Mark Twain said that you should read a good book at least three times. Read it when you are an adolescent.  Read it when you are a young adult and read it when you are old. He said that the book doesn't change, but that you do.  The experience that you bring to the book makes it a completely different book.  So  I want to suggest that the book changes too.

At sixty-three years old I think it's a safe assumption that I am not going to become famous. Or will I? One of my blog posts that I published last year went semi-viral.  According to the Google+ metrics, it has garnered over 22,000 views ! To date, however, no reporter or publisher has contacted me for an interview.  So how many views does it take for me to be famous? Am I famous already?

I bought the last motorcycle I owned in July of 1992. The Honda CB 900 was so wide that  when I stopped I had to lean one way or the other. I couldn't put both feet on the ground. I had dreamed of scenic mountain rides along cool streams yielding many blissful hours of pleasure.  For reasons I don't recall, I took the bike out on I-75. Going 70mph between eighteen wheelers it occurred to me that I wouldn't think of driving my car down the interstate without buckling my seat belt.  And there I was straddling a 900cc engine going 70mph strapped to nothing. The asphalt was traveling 70mph in the opposite direction inches below my feet.  I parked the bike and sold it within a few days for what I had paid for it.

Just because I'm not willing to ride a motorcycle doesn't mean I can't appreciate a motorcycle adventure. And I am very excited about this particular "Chautauqua". There are things about the trip that I want to understand much better.  But more importantly, there are things about me I want to understand much better. If I've read Motorcycle Maintenance three times, how many times have I read me?  Not enough to know all there is  to know. And I'm reading the book just in the nick of time before all this fame and fortune goes to my head.