Crossing Canada With The Maplemusketeer Volume One - An Overview (June 2014) | Page 12

alone. I didn’t travel across the country alone. It was a
collaborative quest.

I lived and I learned. I decided that I would rather fail at something I believe in–and in doing so
learn to do it better–than succeed at things I don’t care for.

I travelled by backpack, got rides with friends, and
strangers who became friends. I slept on couches, love
seats, futons, beds, and the ground. I encountered times
of famine and feast, scarcity and generosity, joy, sorrow,
fear, and courage.

I came to points where I’d exhausted my options, was broke and broken, was forced to discover
new options, try new things, and push through into new territory.

I wondered what the hell I was doing on a number of
occasions, came to the cusp of giving up, and kept going.

This journey is a bit about me, but more so, it is about us... and our world. Not just the people,
stories, and places shown on television, with the fear-mongering shiny plastic veneer of celebrity,
but the undergirding ever-present struggle, life, joy, sorrow, success, and beauty of awesomeness
unfolding all around that we are a part of, that we walk and interact with, that we, by our choices,
actions, and non-actions, shape all of our tomorrows w