Truth or Beard by Penny Reid (Notes)

Not all those who wander are lost.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
 
You have this plan that ensures life-long freedom from commitment. All you ever talk about is traveling the world. You’re home just long enough to pay off loans and gain experience for your résumé. 
 
Honey, Beau Winston puts his pants on one leg at a time. He’s completely normal. Why the hero worship? Go talk to him.”
 
The road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.” ― Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Fall of Atlantis 

“Let love find you. Don’t go looking for it. The best way to attract a mate is to post an ad on Craigslist titled, “Have lube, will travel.” ― Jarod Kintz, Love quotes for the ages. Specifically ages 18-81.

When Cletus put his mind to something, he could see everything. 

Tricking her, taking her backstage had been a spur-of-the-moment decision. For me, spur of the moment was well beyond my comfort zone. I liked to know what to expect. I liked the certainty that came with a well-laid plan.

I’d never had the good sense to be afraid of perilous situations like most people. I’d been bungee jumping, drag racing, sky diving—none of which had ever set my blood pumping beyond a mild degree. The more dangerous my circumstances, the more focused I became. I couldn’t think of doing a single thing that scared me, and I’d never embarrassed easily.

It would require courage, the kind that risks public rejection.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”― Lao Tzu

I was here to pay off my student loans, gain teaching experience, and then move on and out and see the world.

Touch Me, by The Doors.

“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” ― Judith Thurman 

But ever since I was a little girl I’d dreamt of seeing the world, experiencing it, and not as a tourist. I wanted to be a world traveler. I’d craved freedom and adventure.

Roberta Flack’s The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

“Don't let your luggage define your travels, each life unravels differently.” ― Shane Koyczan

 
“In a day, when you don't come across any problems - you can be sure that you are travelling in a wrong path” ― Swami Vivekananda

“One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." ― Henry Miller

There are just some girls you can’t fuck around with, because doing so would be handing over your man card. She’d own my pride first, then my heart, then my spirit. Then she’d leave, taking all three with her.

“Everything is temporary, Duane. This,” he gestured to our surroundings, “this is temporary. Even mountains fall. Nothing lasts forever. You got a chance at happiness, even for a week, a month, a year? You grab it and you hold on to it for as long as it lasts.”

“Exactly.” Beau nodded vehemently; now he was frowning, looking as serious as I’d ever seen him. “You have a chance to be with her, even for a short time? You take it. Because when she leaves, you’ll still have that.”

“We all know that light travels faster than sound. That's why certain people appear bright until you hear them speak.” ― Albert Einstein
 

“Men read maps better than women because only men can understand the concept of an inch equaling a hundred miles.” ― Roseanne Barr 

Jessica James, you’re going to have to get used to me wanting to take care of you and fix your troubles.”<BR>“I’m not a damsel. I don’t need rescuing.” “I know. You’re capable and stubborn, and I like that about you a whole lot. But maybe you could pretend to be a little less capable from time to time?”<BR>“To what end?”<BR>“So I get to feel good about rescuing you.”<BR>I smirked at this logic. His request actually reminded me of my mom and dad. Sometimes my mother would pretend she couldn’t open a jar in the kitchen or that she needed help lifting something heavy. When I’d called her on it, she’d said, “Nothing wrong with making your man feel needed. If your Aunt Louisa had done the same then she wouldn’t be so lonely in that big house of hers.”

Courting meant a long-term relationship with marriage and a white picket fence being the end goal. Marriage and white picket fences terrified me because they sounded like the end of freedom, the end of my dreams.

“I loved seeing pictures and reading stories about the world, especially the places I didn’t know existed. I spent hours getting lost in the pages, imagining myself scuba diving in Fiji, hand-harvesting saffron in Greece, or working with Jane Goodall’s chimpanzees in Africa.”

All my days I have longed equally to travel the right road and to take my own errant path.” ― Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter  

It doesn’t need to be showy. Its beauty is in its simplicity. Simple, straightforward design…with hidden depths.” He paired this with an impressive engine growl, and accelerated lightning fast along a straight stretch of road. The car certainly was responsive.

Its minimalism only contributed to its effortlessness beauty. But I could feel the untapped potential, its restless restrained power. 

First dates are like a job interview. It’s about putting your best foot forward, not arguing and speaking your mind.”

“You hush up and hear me out for a minute. You are a pretty girl. And pretty girls who don’t know how pretty they are sometimes feel overwhelmed by attention from the opposite sex.”

No man with brains would be able to put up with her brand of boring and crazy indefinitely. 

No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself.”<BR>― Haruki Murakami, after the quake

“And you won’t even consider the possibility that your dreams might be made better, that life and the living of it can be enriched if you have someone to share it with. Why is that?”

“I’m not saying Duane Winston is your Ben. I’m not saying that. But watching you shut down and withhold yourself from the possibility of love and being loved, that makes me sad. That makes me sad for you. I know you want adventure, I know you want to see the world. But love is the greatest adventure, where you risk the most for the greatest reward. What good will all this exceptional living do if you’re doing it only for yourself?”

I would hate owning stuff that owns me. I would hate knowing the whole world was out there and I’d locked myself in a cage—even if the cage was gold, and pretty, with an herb garden and a flowerbed…”

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”<BR>― Marcel Proust

Books. Lots of books. At least one a week to expand our vocabulary and our minds. The classics were required reading. Plus table manners—all manners—were taken very seriously. Words like ain’t, which isn’t a word, weren’t allowed in the house, though we’ve all grown lazy with proper grammar as we’ve grown older. She also taught us how to dance.”

But really, I think I’d prefer to be out there myself. Living, doing, seeing for myself.”

I’m just saying, if you can’t have an adventure where you are, what makes you think you’ll have an adventure anywhere else?”<BR>I felt the answer was obvious; nevertheless I said, “Because it’ll be someplace new. I’ve already done and seen everything there is to do and see here.”

So, you’re telling me that when you leave and go on your wanderlust walkabouts, you’re planning on having only nice, quiet safe adventures?” He made a face, like he was disappointed in me. “That’s not living. That’s just more time spent planning.”

I know just about all the racers—the ones who take it seriously—and we have a mutual respect thing going on. But I don’t usually associate with any one group.” “A lone wolf?”

As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.” ― Gautama Buddha

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees only what he has come to see.” ― G.K. Chesterton

Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison.

Build Me Up Buttercup by the Foundations, I Want You Back by the Jackson 5, and Uptown Girl by Billy Joel

Beach Boys, this time it was Don’t Worry Baby.

“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.” ― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest  

“The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.” ― Augustine of Hippo

Have you ever heard of the German words wanderlust or fernweh?”<BR>“You used wanderlust on our first date. And I read a book some years ago about hiking, and the title had the word wanderlust in it. It was about people who love to hike and catalogued some of the great hiking trails around the world.”<BR>“Wanderlust in German basically means to love hiking, but it’s been repurposed by English speakers to mean a love of wandering. I remember the first time I heard the word fernweh; in German it means farsickness. It’s like, some people have homesickness and that’s considered normal, acceptable. Missing one’s family and friends, what’s familiar, I think everyone can understand longing for home. But I realized that the strange anxiousness I’ve always felt to be elsewhere was called fernweh. I have fernweh. How most people long for the familiar, I’ve always longed for the unknown. Heck, if I could manage it, I’d love to see Mars. I love to explore. And don’t think it’s an easy concept to explain or, for people who don’t have the same desire, to grasp.”

“This desire, to explore, has nothing to do with where I am. It has everything to do with where I’m not.” “So, it’s about newness? Being in a new place?”

 

They couldn’t fathom that I wanted to fill my life with experiences, not with things. I had their core values, but in so many ways we were completely different. They’d never understood my dramatic, wild side. Consequently, I’d spent my childhood trying to suppress or ignore it. But it was no use. I craved freedom, they craved structure. I didn’t know why my dreams and goals were so different from my family’s. They just were.

 

The sirens are beautiful, yes. But their song and their beauty call to the soul, not to the body. The sirens don’t inspire lust. They inspire longing. A deep, wrenching longing. Bone deep, so the sailors would rather die than live without the siren.”

 

“I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts.”<BR>― Herman Melville

 

My twin had this effect on people, because he was so gifted at being insincere. I was convinced he could bullshit his way out of a federal prison if the need ever arose. He’d inherited our father’s gift of artless charm. Jethro, my oldest brother, had similar abilities. Roscoe, the youngest, was a close third.

 

“Nothing travels faster than the speed of light, with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.” ― Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless

 

“Travel brings wisdom only to the wise. It renders the ignorant more ignorant than ever.” ― Joe Abercrombie, Last Argument of Kings  

Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness.”<BR>― Ray Bradbury

 

“The three saddest things are the ill wanting to be well, the poor wanting to be rich, and the constant traveler saying 'anywhere but here'.”<BR>― E.E. Cummings

 

“Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of traveling.” ― Margaret Lee Runbeck

 

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” ― Leigh Hunt

 

The pancakes. How do you get them to be so light? It’s amazing.” I shook my head at my eccentric older brother and answered honestly because I was so tired. “Egg whites.” “What?” I stood and stacked the plates. “It’s egg whites. I keep them separate. Then I whip them ’til they’re stiff, and fold them in at the end. It makes the pancakes super light.”

 

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

 

If I’d learned anything from this disaster it was to be considerably more guarded with my heart. I’d always thought that if I were open to love, then love would find me. As it turns out, if you’re open to love, then heartbreak finds you and leaves you naked in a cabin with no electricity or indoor plumbing.

 

Never travel faster than your guardian angel can fly.” ― Mother Teresa

 

Travel far enough, you meet yourself.” ― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas 

 

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ― Lao Tzu  

 

See, this is your problem.” “I don’t have a problem.” “Yeah, you do. You’re always planning, but getting nothing done, waiting for a sure thing. You love that woman, you go get her, Duane. You don’t wait ’til the time is right.”

 

You don’t wait for that kind of love to cool off. You strike while the iron is hot

 

“I don’t want to let you down. I don’t want to let anyone down. I don’t want to take without asking permission or deserving what I get. I need to take responsibility—for me, for my family—and I don’t want any handouts or free rides.”

  

All I’m saying is that you get to live through this however you decide. There’s no right or wrong.”

“Just because it came from bad beginnings, doesn’t mean it can’t be put to good use.”

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters most, in the end.” ― Ernest Hemingway 

Basketcase by Green Day