John Rogers has talked recently about morning pages, the idea of getting up early and making time to write every day. It’s a way of setting out thoughts clearly, or offloading thoughts, before the day begins cluttering up our heads with new interference. We then are not supposed to look at what we’ve written for at least a year, but just put it away somewhere to be read in the future. I’ve tried but failed to get in the habit. I feel pressure to find something interesting to write. The concept of morning pages has probably been around in some form for as long as people have written, but is closely associated with a book by Julia Cameron, called The Artists’ Way. I couldn’t get on with it. She seemed to talk about recovering from trauma by finding the love of God, something I can do without.
Travelling does give me the chance and clarity of mind to write more naturally. I have the freedom, lack of routine and commitment which frees up headspace to do it. My sleep patterns are interrupted when I travel, something I like. Yesterday was a day of travelling. Airports are places designed around different ways of making people queue, or “stand in line” which is a local term. I’m going to learn the entire language while I’m here.
Chicago is like New York but empty. We went out early yesterday evening and it felt like everywhere was closed. Perhaps we went the wrong way. We’ll try the other way today. The hotel is a typical American city building. A tall imposing block, I think 1930s era, quite Gotham-like, a set of tall oblong blocks stood on their ends. Inisde there are lifts (“elevators”) with slightly old fashioned 1980s style buttons. I took some photos of my room. It is well finished, lots of brown, it has a slight noir murder feel about it. I brought a couple of books by Steinbeck and Kerouac with me, they’re fitting for the classic vintage American nostalgia vibe. There are elevated railways (“The EL”). I’d like to ride on them but Harry won’t want to I don’t think. The block has 41 storeys but the hotel only seems to occupy about 10 of them. There is an entrance on a side street which appears disused. There may be lots of empty space across the city.
I’d like to visit all the states now. New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, those are cities, I know. I’m trying to learn which cities are in which states, and where they are in relation to each other. Chicago is further inland from New York, but almost on the same axis. Detroit is further north, where car factories used to be, and now Jamie Budgett, a blond twinky manager I used to know of. He’s toughened up in looks since he went there.
