Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #19: When Life Asks Questions, Change the Subject

Like, by buying a one-way ticket to Paris.

THE SUMMER AFTER MY GRADUATION FROM COLLEGE, my father addressed my future. He had fully bought into my dream of becoming a writer, and typically for him, he had given it more thought than I had.

I took notes in my journal. 

2 or 3 or 4 August 1978

A talk with dad spurs an investigation into the psyche of Peter S. Moore. He spoke again of “the discipline of the artist”—the daily practice that prepares the virtuoso for his performance. I would like to master the discipline of writing. My own weakness of spirit must fall as a slave to my ambition first. 

And thus we come to the PSM psyche: Consider my two great accomplishments (not so great, really) of the last four years: freshman year grades, a four-and-a-half-month novel [my senior thesis; don’t ask]. The common inspiration from both: general doubt of my ability to accomplish my goals (including self-doubt) and my own belief that by perseverance I could accomplish the impossible. Accomplish I did, at the almost total disregard of everyth…