The Reader Travels

I keep coming back to Roads by Larry McMurtry because driving the US interstates is a common journey that most Americans can relate to. Despite all our differences, these roads connect us to each other. They flow through us all, just as red blood flows through our arteries.

I could truly relate to McMurtry’s journey, because it was so familiar to me. There was comfort in that familiarity and the light-hearted way he shared his travels. But I got all confused when I read Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. And do you want to know why? Because his road trips were all taken before the Interstates were even built. I mean, if there was no Interstate, how in the heck did he get there?

What Kerouac’s book needs is a good map. It’s on my long list of things to research, and the Internet hasn’t been much help, although I did find reference to a lecture by Alice Hudson at the New York Public Library on the history of the road map with a focus on Kerouac’s journeys. Alice, if you’re out there Googling yourself, you should take that lecture on tour, make a real road trip out of it. Either that or put it on YouTube. I’d totally watch.

There’s a certain irony in the fact that so many teachers force their students to memorize “The Road Not Taken,” turning them into little drones, when the popular message is about individuality and taking a different path than the norm. I wonder what percentage of students take that message to heart, refusing to recite the poem as written, instead altering it to express their unique travels. And would their teachers praise them for “getting it” or punish them for disobedience?

On the other hand, some might argue that the poem is really about uncertainty and self-deception, about having no regrets, that even though the two roads look exactly the same, with the same amount of wear, I will tell myself when I am older that I took the right road, maybe even dress it up a little in my memory by saying it was less traveled, when I don’t really know that at all.

A poet friend once told me that being an individual is not about going against the norm, but choosing those things to which we will conform and those to which we won’t.  Individuality is in all of those millions of decisions we make every day. I choose to wear clothes, for instance. A nudist might call me a conformist, but if I chose to be a nudist, wouldn’t I be conforming to other nudists? There is no freedom from conformity, it’s just differing degrees and individual choices. And if you choose to be the opposite of something, you are still bound to it.

There’s irony again, right? We’re all conformists and yet unique.  Regardless, I have no regrets. And I’m not lying to myself in saying it. At least I don’t think so.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who had to memorize Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in high school.  It’s all about choosing a path that’s different from the mainstream, about finding beauty in things that others don’t see.  Maybe the teachers were trying some sort of deep programming to tell us we didn’t have to take drugs just because everyone else was doing it. Or maybe I’m reading too much into it.

Anyway, I like this idea of individuality, of choosing a path in life that’s different from the norm. But when I’m driving, I’m all about the path of least resistance. At rush hour, it means I’m taking a slower road with less traffic and well-timed lights. But when I’m on a long trip, it usually means driving on a wide road with lots of lanes and no traffic lights. Yes, I’m talking about the Interstate. 

And that’s what Larry McMurtry’s all about in Roads. He has an individual’s perspective on the road oft traveled, but instead of focusing on that individuality, he’s connecting to a common experience. He’s linking folks together with a smooth stretch of highway.

Songs about singing usually annoy to me, but I don’t mind when musicians sing about being on the road, even if it’s kinda cliche. There’s Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and Bob Seger’s “Turn the Page,” among many others.

Here’s a road song off one of the best rock and roll albums to come out in the last decade: