Well, this is it. Baring any unforeseen circumstances, this may be my final entry on the World Race blog page.
My Race journey has been finished for over 2 months now, but this blog page holds a special place in my heart that could at least be on par with my feelings of nostalgia for the Race itself.
My journey physically began in July, 2013, and came to a close February 1st, 2015. But this page has been with me from the true beginning. It has been with me from the day I first got accepted to the Race in August 2012, to my first actual blog post on September 24 of that same year.
It was with me as I first started to get to know my squad-mates, and began my research for the countries that we were “going to” (our numerous route changes would make a mockery of these research blogs).
It was with me when my squad and I first started to come in physical contact with each other, and as we finally reached the starting point of training camp in May, 2013.
I could go on and on like this, but in an attempt to make myself brief (yeah, right); this blog has been my World Race companion from day 1: allowing me an opportunity to spread the word about my own journey; giving me the chance to grow as a writer as I attempted to convey the gradual transformation that I was experiencing; and allowing me to have an outlet for my celebrations, challenges, frustrations, discoveries, and everything in between.
I wanted to use this final blog as an opportunity to properly express my feelings about finishing this World Race journey (the title is an homage to my 2 squads, R & L), and I’ve always tried to use media tie-ins to make my blogs more flashy… but where, oh where could I possibly begin with my blogging swan song?
I could go with some famous literary quotes… that I heard in movies. Possibly the Dickens quote from the end of A Tale of Two Cities (also Dark Knight Rises), “It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known”… but then again this quote is given before Sydney Carton steps into the guillotine, so…
Maybe another Dickensian quote from his short story, Doctor Marigold’s Prescriptions, “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another”… but I’ve always tried to be careful not to make it seem like Racers are doing work that’s any more extraordinary than people who don’t leave the country…
Perhaps a different quote from another Christopher Nolan film, taken from a Dylan Thomas poem and used sporadically throughout Interstellar, “Do not go gentle into that good night, old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, because their words had forked no lightning, they do not go gentle into that good night… And you, my father, there on the sad height, curse, bless me now with your fierce tears I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”… though that’s still pretty bleak, and I want to convey hope that my post-Race life still has meaning.
I could just stick with the movie theme: While on the Race, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty was released, and even though I was in the midst of a pretty incredible adventure, this movie just made me thirst for even MORE adventure. The Life Magazine motto, dreamed up for the film went, “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life”… Heavy stuff, right? I only wish I could claim this as my mantra… but I still have yet to accomplish some of these things, so it wouldn’t be right, quite yet.
Maybe I could just use some songs to get the point across. I’ve been very selective with my music in each of my World Race videos, so why not use that to close out this journey:
Perhaps some Jose Gonzalez…
Or maybe Radical Face, a new artist whom I’ve really taken a liking to…
But you can’t go wrong with some Sufjan Stevens… at any point in life…
I could just go old-school with some Robert Frost: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep”. Of course there’s the classic, “Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” But UGGH! Robert Frost is so cliché. I’ve battled my whole life to not be cliché, so I couldn’t leave things with a played-out Frost poem.
I suppose I COULD go to scripture for my final lines, but just about every verse that I might consider has been used by countless World Racers since day one. Whether it’s Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Or even Isaiah 6:8, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me’”… but I’ve always found it strange that missionaries use that, as it’s kind of just a conversation between Isaiah and God for his specific mission in that circumstance.
So I’ve kind of arrived at my wits end. I exhausted most of the mediums that I could find, and I didn’t trust myself to make a stab at forming my own eloquence, so I think I just want to unceremoniously use a quote from the series finale of Parks & Recreation. It may seem slightly uncouth for a Christian blog-site, and it’s far from the most eloquent piece of writing that I could find. But I find this moment perfectly matches the nostalgia that I feel for all of my former R and L squad-mates, and my yearning to relive our days of bygone adventure:
In this particular scene, Leslie is asking her husband, Ben, when this group of people will ever have a chance to all be together again. Ben reassures her that it will happen, someday, and Leslie asks, “What’s going to happen between now and then?” and Ben replies, “A lot. And it’s all going to be great.”
If I’m realistic about the situation, I know that it’s a long shot to think that all of us will ever be together again in the same place. And I can only rest on the idea that if we continue to follow Christ’s journey for our lives, and truly know him as our Lord and Savior, then we can look Heaven-ward as our next full reunion.
What’s going to happen between now and then? Well, a lot. And it’s all going to be great.
