Love, Not Hate When I was a kid, I was pissed off. Red-faced most of the time. Anger was my default emotion and served as the stand-in for most other feelings. Frustration, sadness, embarrassment, intimidation, even happiness or appreciation were all expressed through anger in some weird way or another. Safe to say that years of therapy have helped me manage this tendency. Which doesn’t … Continue reading Carrboro to Hillsborough
After barely one mile, my left knee started to buckle. Blame it on a tight IT band, the 6 hours of yard work I did the day before, or last September’s shoddy surgery meant to get me running again (it didn’t). Whatever the case, all I could think about was failure. I freaked out, a hitch in each step. I wasn’t as concerned about turning … Continue reading Carrboro to Pittsboro
Today I knocked out a nearly 20-mile walk, following a standard local bike route from my house in Carrboro to the Saxapahaw General Store. I figured it would take a bit more than 5 hours, so to beat the heat I left at 6:45am. Scores of cyclists seemed to have adjusted their Sunday rides for similar reasons. But maybe so many out on a Sunday … Continue reading Carrboro to Saxapahaw
Walk Across America Training #2 Continue reading Carrboro to Cocoa Cinnamon
First big training day – double digits with a pack! Continue reading Walk Across America – Training Day #1
My youngest brother is getting married today. I am honored to be a big part of it. Continue reading My Brother’s Wedding
Thoreau writes in his essay, Walking, “I wish to speak a moment a word for nature.” I too wish to speak a moment, but not for nature, even if my topic is often mistaken for something natural. I want to recognize that embarking on a 7-month, non-work-related journey is a full-on exploitation of my individual privilege. This understanding makes my innate desire for travel and … Continue reading My Privilege to Walk
PRE-WALK, BLOG #1 I’ve got big dreams. Big goals. Always have. Probably goes back to when I was a kid and found my dad’s do-before-I die list. I don’t remember what it said exactly, but as soon as I read it I wrote one of my own. At 8 years old I hoped to one day run a marathon, ride a horse in the Mongolia … Continue reading My New Everest
When Katie booked her week-long bike trip through Arizona, I was like, “Hey, I wanna go somewhere too!” So I booked a trip to México. Big surprise. 2017 had been busy, work-wise. So a break was in order. I hadn’t revisited my book-in-progress since December and my lasting memories of it were largely self-critical. My internal dialogue: There’s no plot. The characters are undeveloped. Why … Continue reading A Short Week in Roma Norte, Again
“Memory is the one true agony carried in the body.” Doug Rice’s An Erotics of Seeing is witness to the purest of all enigmas, memory. I take slower steps, wander the streets of Mexico City, look closely at small things. Forgotten things. Remembering beauty. “Ghosts haunt the streets, the alleys. Words replace people. Names.” “Most times, a word never becomes more than a shape to … Continue reading A Visual Book Review: Part 2
Tom Griffen 
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