Idea in Crimson

I have a relationship with John D. MacDonald. It's true I never met the man (and its too late now) but I've heard stories. I was first introduced to him in my fathers library. Unfortunately, it was in my fathers estate library so I never had opportunity to discuss it with him. As I was packing up my fathers belongings, I kept seeing these books. Curious, I set them aside and that night, I became addicted. I found that I loved the combination of action, adventure, and philosophy. I wanted to be Travis McGee. I wanted to be a beach bum with sporadic employment and a responsible ethic and a stash of cash under the floor of my boat. I wanted to spend hours spewing philosophy to a willing audience and then sail off into the sunset with a beautiful woman. Um, maybe I wasn't quite to that last part yet.

A few years later, not yet having exhausted the colors of McGee, I was speaking to my mother about the books. "Oh" she said. "I knew him."

"WHAT?????" I screamed. "You KNEW him???"

"Oh, yes" she casually replied. "He was in Recovery."

Recovery Incorporated was a mental health group my mother belonged to, Mental Health Through Will Training, with world headquarters in Chicago. My mother was a leader in the wee hours of my life. She told me this anecdote.

"I was at a leadership conference in Chicago one year and I met him. I asked him what his addiction was and he said 'pocket books'." I quizzed her for more but that was all she had. I'm not sure she even got the joke.

Fast forward a few more years and I'm working at a white water rafting company, chatting with a river guide. He grew up in Sarasota, Florida. Somehow, the conversation wandered up to MacDonald. Waynes story was this: "I used to go to the beach and there was this man, every day, sitting in a lawn chair on the beach, writing. One day I went up to him and asked him what he was writing. It was Condiminium."

I swooned.

That seems the ideal life to me. Sitting in a lawnchair on the beach, writing a best seller. Maybe interspersed with the above philosophy and sailing off into said sunset. Alas, Travis McGee is no more and neither is his maker. Still, I've never forgotten that it was possible.

What does this have to do with us traveling? Or this blog? Well, last night I wrote a story. I think I'm going to submit it to fieldreport.com (see the link to that at the right). I've always liked to write and the older I get, the more stories build up inside my head. Last night, I put one down and I'm going to try.

Sunset, here I come.