Dance to the Music

There were five friends, and some people know that five is a good number for many things. In this case it was a good number for a special club. The friends didn’t think of themselves as a club, however, but as a group that had formed for no reason any of them quite understood. It had just happened, spontaneously. Perhaps that made them even more unique.

One of the group thought that they might have been influenced by other books about clubs, because there had been a few published recently and even years ago. They were all avid readers, so that could have been the reason they had formed a group. Their love of books had brought them together, maybe. After all, there are thousands of book groups all around the world and monthly reading assignments bring them together for amicable discussions on a regular basis. 

There is something quite mysterious about the way words bring people together and hold them there, even if they don’t all agree or have the same opinions on subjects. Some might say it’s magic, but that’s ridiculous. Language is what makes people… human.

In this case, the five friends enjoyed getting together, but they definitely disliked the ‘club’ idea and certainly couldn’t accept the concept of a ‘sisterhood’. That was too sorority-like and faux feminist. 

It wasn’t immediately obvious what label they wanted to use, but they felt obligated to choose one. Having dismissed the club label, they came up with the idea of calling themselves Travelers. The name wasn’t cute or creative, but the simplicity of the term appealed to them. Plus, in addition to reading and a few other things, they all liked to travel, and had often talked about what it meant to them. They could always change it if later on it didn’t seem to fit.

Every year the five Travelers would celebrate the founding of their group, although they couldn’t recall exactly when that had happened, so natural had the process been. They always made an effort to keep things simple, but had selected a day that became their own special holiday. It didn’t have to be on the same date or even during the same month. Yet they celebrated each year at some point by meeting and submitting anonymous ‘gifts’ for the other members.

They were unique, because they made up their own rules, but they weren’t given to inventing wild or odd things to do. None of them was interested in skydiving or any other daredevil sports. None would be caught dead in a hotdog or blueberry pie eating contest. None wanted to try shimmying up a greased pole or practicing mud wrestling. They were contemplative sorts. That meant they thought about things before they did them.

This year was no different. They had planned carefully and their celebration appeared simple. They all brought something to their gathering, which was in the spring some time. (Since nobody was required to keep a record, there aren’t many details on how the decision had come about.) They saw the five items brought that day as gifts, but they weren’t things like for birthdays or Christmas. That wouldn’t have been very original. Gifts for no reason are more interesting.

Each participant had to select a gift without looking. If a person got her own, it didn’t matter. That would actually keep everybody from getting too ‘cute’ with their submissions. Humor was allowed, of course, but no practical jokes and nothing that could get anybody in trouble. The Travelers were boringly non competitive.

The gifts were part of the rules established, like a charter even if no charter had been drawn up, when group had begun. That had been at least five years ago, but it could have been ten. Nobody cared, so nobody remembered the exact details. Their objective was simply to celebrate traveling and to do it in ways that were different. They always took into account that idea of being unique, but they also made sure it didn’t require a lot of money to go places. 

Everybody was on a budget, so reaching the places they chose to visit could require some effort. That was part of the idea: to go places, do things, but not to create hardship for anybody.

This year the gifts that had been submitted all began with the same two words: You will.

All of the assigned tasks involved going somewhere and were to be completed within six months, if at all possible.

These were the five gifts, all starting with the two words already mentioned: You will…

1. Go somewhere you’ve never been.

2. Go somewhere you’ve been afraid of going.

3. Go somewhere you’ve been twenty, fifty, or a hundred times.

4. Go somewhere you think you would hate.

5. Go somewhere with extreme weather or climate (very hot, cold, wet, dry).

The Travelers were allowed to reveal to the others in the group what they had drawn for a travel assignment, but they were forbidden to talk about what they would do to complete it. That would lessen the surprise when they all got back together again. Nobody was supposed to identify herself as the giver of any of the five gifts either. This was just to avoid the temptation to ask what the giver had intended. Decisions were supposed to be made independently.

There was another aspect of the celebration, which was the expectation that each person would write down or somehow record how the gifted assignments for traveling had been carried out. The recording could be through writing or some other art form; it didn’t matter. The Travelers made every effort to allow freedom of expression and thought that freedom from restraints or suggestions might result in some entertaining representations of the places they had visited.

Think how strange this was, in a society where people like to have concrete rules or specific deadlines for things, where they like structure and rules, even if the rules were often ignored.

And so they all received their gifts, which were excruciatingly simple: they were no more than the numbers 1 through 5 written on tags made from cardstock with the journey to be taken following each of the numbers. Alba got 1. Branca got 2. Cassandra got 3. Diana got 4. Eva got 5. If that looks contrived - A, B, C, D, E getting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, in that order - none of the friends showed concern. We can just call it a coincidence

The work of traveling was to begin as soon as possible, and thus the Travelers were quickly at work trying to sort through the strategies available to each. They were eager to get going. That was the whole point of their group. This is how they each responded:

Alba: I’m supposed to go somewhere I’ve never been…. That’s so easy. There are many places I’ve never been. How do I choose? I suppose that’s the point. Out of all the places I’ve never been, which will I choose so I can cross it off my list?

Alba, like the rest, would also need to find a way to get to that place and return but without using all her meager savings to do it. She liked the challenge, though.

Branca was next, as befitted her place in the alphabet after A. She was good-natured about the assignment she had drawn, which might have seemed daunting to anybody else.

Branca: I’m supposed to go somewhere I’m afraid of going? That’s so easy. There are many places I’m afraid of going. But why should I go someplace I’m afraid of? What’s the purpose of doing that? She set about conjuring up memories of dark places, slippery slopes, high altitude that made her sick to her stomach and brought on the panic of vertigo.

She knew she had to conquer her fear and go to a place that frightened her. Her savings were as meager as Alba’s, so she had to be careful. Paying to go somewhere that scared her didn’t appeal to her very much.

Cassandra was in a quandary. She nearly backed out, almost left the group, although they hadn’t ever discussed how that was done. Maybe once you were in, you stayed in forever.

Cassandra: I’m supposed to go to a place I’ve been to twenty or more times… That’s so hard. I’ve been to many places a lot of times. What can I possibly gain from going back again?

She expected to be bored to tears, but decided to sleep on it. There must be a place she could go to that still had something to offer, still had a stone that was unturned, a street she hadn’t walked along. She would try.

Diana found herself in somewhat of the same predicament as Branca, except Dana wasn’t being sent to a scary place.

Diana: I’m supposed to go somewhere I think I’d hate? That’s easy. There are lots of places I’d hate to go to. We all can name some and our reasons for hating those places can vary a lot. Why would I, or anybody, choose to go to a place they hate. Reporting on the trip wouldn’t be fun for me and it wouldn’t be amusing to my friends. She shook her head as she was trying to select her destination.

Finally, it was Eva’s turn to feel puzzled, and she was up to the challenge. Of the five, she might be the bravest, and she rarely felt discouraged when something demanding was placed before her.

Eva: Go to a place with extreme weather? Me? That’s easy. I know of many places with extreme weather conditions. The problem is, the conditions can depend on the time of year and I need to get started as soon as possible. 

If I decide to look for extreme climate conditions, is that any different? I mean, extreme weather might be a temporary situation, and it could be hard getting to a hurricane or flood site. Maybe I’d get in the way of rescue operations. Climate is easier, because it is more ongoing. I can look at deserts or Antarctica. When is the monsoon season for India, the Philippines, Malaysia? This is going to require a little research.

Weeks went by, as each Traveler investigated, using all her available means and resources, how to complete her voyage to 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. Because the members of the group, which really wasn’t a club, an association, a society, or anything like them, were very committed, all did her best and prepared something to read at the Travelers’ next gathering.

What follows is a summary of the five presentations. As noted previously, there was no competition and the Travelers had come together with all the time in the world to listen to one another. If anybody reading this wishes to select a favorite, feel free to do so, but don’t reveal your choice.

Alba had gone to a place she’d never been. She went to Finland. She studied the country’s history, had even acquired a conversational level of the Finnish language after learning its history. She found there were five Nobel Prize winners from Finland: Ahtisaari, Granit, Holmström, Sillanpää, and Virtanen. She compiled a long list of contemporary writers and included translations into English as well as any other languages her four friends knew.

Alba also learned about Finnish cuisine and creative arts. She came to understand how the climate and geography influenced them. She looked at the word Suomi, which is the Finns’ name for their country. She also noted that Finland has been number 1 on the World Happiness Report since 2018. That fact alone, whether or not it is accurate or whether happiness can even be measured, didn’t matter. Finland was a country she had never visited in person and now, after learning so much about it, traveling by book and internet, she was ready to catch the next plane.

Branca had worked hard to go to a place she feared, and she had done a fine job. In her account of her travels, which was presented as a digital voice recording, she explained how she had managed to go into the deep recesses of her childhood. Things had been difficult and dangerous for her as a girl, and she had shut them out - except when they returned as nightmares.

Branca spoke to a quiet room many times over the weeks of her journey, and it has all come out. It had been a relief. She had even offered the story in the form of a memoir and it was due to be published early next year. Telling it had relieved her of a tremendous burden; that can happen. By facing her demons - which we shall not present here - she effectively erased them. Catharsis or something else? It didn’t matter. Plus, the nightmares were gone.

Cassandra had been required to return to an oft-visited place. It hadn’t been easy to choose, but she finally made her decision. She had truly wanted to return to the St. Lawrence River where her father had taught her to fish, but decided that could wait. She had considered Toulouse and the Tarn, but worried that if she returned she would never be able to tear herself away.

In the end, Cassandra explained to her fellow Travelers, she had opted for her backyard. She had gone out to that small space overlooking a Brook and had taken three things. First, a book of Mary Oliver’s collected poetry. The volume was well-worn, which made it perfect. She also had taken a sketchbook and pencil and had drawn a number of things that had passed before her: a darning needle, a colony of blue mushrooms (very rare), a nest of house finches. Later, she added color to the sketches and a line or phrase from Oliver’s poetry.

The sketches had been spotted as she flipped through them in a local café and were going to be in a show. Cassandra had never dared think of her sketching as good, but was no longer afraid to let people see them. She brought one piece for each friend.

Diana had had to think long and hard about places she hated. She knew there were lots of them, just as there were many she loved, but if she had to actually go there… She thought about Tijuana (dusty border town), Gracias (Honduras), the town where Purdue is located, and a lot more. In the end, she had chosen to go to her home town. Her fellow Travelers knew the town’s name, but were surprised when Diana said she hated it.

Diana’s account of her trip was in the form of a play, which she acted out for her audience of four, playing several roles along with her own. The play made it clear that the ‘hate’ was misguided; it was Diana’s sense of loss (her family there was all gone), of the passage of time (an anguish we all feel), as well as a real fear that old enemies would do her harm. She hated the fact that her town had ceased to be the center of her universe.

The other Travelers were unable to respond to Diana’s dramatic presentation except by applauding and hugging her. Then they began to discuss it and Diana felt better, as if she had placed her hate on the stage and distanced herself from it. She knew then the Verfremdungseffekt, the distancing that theater can create with spectators, can be a very healthy thing. Her hate, which had gnawed at her for years, was no long inside her.

And only Eva remained. She had never been a storm chaser like some weather commentators. She had never been a journalist on special assignment to a desert area which might also be a war site. She didn’t feel there was enough time to plan a trip to Africa, Iran, Pakistan, or Death Valley. That left her with Buffalo, so there she went.

Except it wasn’t the season for lake-effect snow in Buffalo. Also, to catch a blizzard, you had to get there ahead of time. Otherwise, highways would be shut down, along with the airport. Afterward, you would have to wait around to be dug out.

Eva knew the solution was simple: she would use her memories to reconstruct blizzards so monstrous, white, and wonderful that people sported t-shirts that proclaimed “I survived the blizzard of 19XX (or 20XX)” and smiled about it. Blizzards that snowed people in and brought them together with guitars, songs in Spanish, hit chocolate. Blizzards that turned the city pure and pale, until the soot of Lackawanna burned it away.

Eva’s presentation was multimedia and memoir. She spoke, sang, acted out snow events, used props like cotton balls and LEGOS to illustrate what happens when it really does snow that hard… and her friends were in stitches, almost shivering from the Buffalo experience. Eva was good at loving her city, good at recalling a place well-lived, despite its extreme weather.

EPILOGUE 

The story doesn’t end here, of course, because the Travelers continue to meet and continue to design new ways to embark on journeys, new motives, new modes of transportation. They’ve - we’ve - barely scratched the surface. More than that: there is no copyright on these activities, so any group of like-minded people can adopt them. Maybe traveling won’t be the theme, maybe it will.

The point is to be creative, not competitive, when doing it.