James L. Menapace
Published: 2005-09-01
Total Pages: 228
Get eBook
It is 1982, and Jerry Andrews is a man who never did play it by the book. This was the case when he decided to unbuckle the straps of stability to pursue a dream. The dream, that of teaching college history was achieved, but it didn't come without the blues. His marriage dissolved, his best friend died, and then just when he smelled the scent of tenure, he was terminated. The termination leaves him broken, whereupon he retreats into the tunnel of internalized solitude. Thus begins the slow journey to redefine his life, his place in the world. He breaks the solitude to take his personal journey on the road from Illinois to New York. Follow him as he works in a restaurant, tips his elbow in bars, and unwittingly gets deeper into the heart of America, tasting tidbits of current events, politics, art, environment, landscape, and regional cuisine along the way. Through it all, and commingling within his journey is a quilted story of America, with the concept of "we the people," as the center pole. He learns to listen more closely to everyday stories from a passing variety of characters. They float by, some stopping- their voices filtering in and out, becoming stimuli that intersects throughout the book. For this journey, his constant companion is his lost profession of history. His historical love didn't end with his termination. It takes on other forms, as images, dreams, and visions. Yes, that's right, dreams and visions. Jerry Andrews, a man who never did play it by the book, is someone who sees and touches the world a little differently than most people. For example, the memory of a mystical Zuni bracelet becomes the setting sun in the western sky, and transports him to a place of remembered warmth. A place where he dances with migrating sandhill cranes, and ponders- why is a lonesome coyote showing herself and singing to him, a predator? This isn't everyday daydreaming; it's real. It's real because to Jerry Andrews, it actually happened! His companion, history walking, isn't textbook neat; it's unrestrained and full of the blues. It's against forgetting, and is transmitted via historical inserts that flow as tributaries through the river of the book. The history is varied, from coal mining to farming to the Delta Blues; from Native American to Hispanic history; from Vietnam to Guatemala to Ulysses S. Grant to John Dillenger. These multifaceted inclusions weave a fabric that is America, and transcend the borderlines of time and place. His journey to mend his broken spirit is an honest gathering of spiritual knowledge that acknowledges what Black Elk said, a true journey never ends.