A Big Walk About

Lately, as all the land around where I grew up is being auctioned off to the lowest bidder, I have been rereading my great, great, great grandfather's diaries. He wrote almost every day from 1826 when he, his family, cattle and chickens boarded a rickety vessel in London bound for Tasmania till he died in Alameda, CA in 1882. And I thought I had something to complain about!

Luckily, my uncle saved these writings from extinction and bound them into family volumes. As difficult as they are to read (death, floggings, birth, constant struggle), the affirmation is through the telling of the story. I am here because they were here. I meet people every day from split families who don't know their grandparents. All this has helped me remember my own stories and be grateful for my journey.

I have long thought of going to Australia and somehow chronicling their path, filming the same roads, fields and rivers, talking to descendants and relating my own experiences. Just considering the incredible effort involved in that puts me a little closer to the uncertainty they must have considered while looking at the boat. Even as I tell myself this is a crazy idea, so must they have. Little money, big dreams, even bigger faith. A friend of mine once said, Look before you leap, then leap anyway. I don't know... Stay tuned.