Sidewalk

This wasn't the first place I stopped.  To get this far away from where you started, you must undertake quite a journey. 

idyllic islands, shabby settlements, and crowded cities

You will even meet people along the way.  Some you wish you could bring with you, others you will add to the long list of people to avoid. 
A map of connections that ever spreading out from your central path begins to look like the branches of a tree.  Like in Deleuze and Guattari, my story is made of "variously formed matters."  Everything that is done, or seen, or experienced, influences the outcome and is connected to the outcome.  Its not just a trip, it might become a growing experience.  An enlightening experience.  Peace is worth it.  Bettering yourself is worth it.  I am better for it, I have traveled through the madness of the unknown world. Now, I have arrived at my peace.  At my solitude. 

Traveling, looking for peace, you may find yourself in the heart of the confusion.  Searching through foreign lands with foreign people for a way out, and eventually finding it.  To others it may be home, but on your journey, it is another experience that you make you appreciate the destination more. 

escape

"faithless is he who says farewell when a road darkens."
-JRR Tolkien

   We, as a race, are split in two when it comes to adventure.  People say that adventure is good.  Thats how things are discovered, how changes are made, where progress can stem from.  Those same people are bound to say that adventure is great, but not today.  i don't have time

   People should get lost more often.  You can find yourself out there.  If you have done all you can do in the world you live in, leave that world, and work on yourself.  Get lost.  You might find something.  I have been lost now for a while.  I left my home, my comfort, my daily grind.  I came here to get away from people, but I ended up getting away from everything.  Ive made a new life.

new day over the Congo

   Adventure isn't as dangerous as it sounds in books or movies.  There is no horror at the down the river.  Natives aren't lurking behind every tree waiting to put a spear in your chest.  Joseph Conrad was right about one thing though, you will be different once you reach the Heart of Darkness.  But that's not always a bad thing. 
             I came to escape.  And I found escape. 

Rivet

There used to be hope.  I had such plans.  We were told we could be anything, so why do some people pick being sad?  How do some people get lucky and pick happiness?

I used to enjoy the city.  I was a baron.  A master of the universe.  I snapped my fingers and industry would grind, and pour, and stamp.  I was born there in that world.  Either it was designed for me, or I for it.  I couldn't say which ones the truth.  I loved it.  I was making something.  It wasn't always an important something, sometimes just the piece of metal that holds something bigger in place. 

If the rivet in the floor of a locomotive isn't there, the engineer can still steam along the track as usual.  When I came here, I learned that I am a rivet.  A small part of a whole, that can continue steaming along without even noticing that I have fallen onto the tracks. 

I fell onto the tracks and found that I am not alone here.  I see the path differently now.  I doesnt lead anywhere anymore.  The very foundation that the machine runs on, is made up of pieces that have fallen off.  I am not longer a part of that society, I did my part, then made my exit.

I'm a spent firework, but at least I've been a firework. -David Mitchell