“Do you know where you are going?” (Do You Like the Things Life Shows You?) by Diana Ross was the graduation theme song for my Springfield High School class of ’78 (Holland, Ohio).

It reminds me of those sayings like “If you don’t know where you’re going, you don’t need a map to get there” and “Man can’t discover new worlds until he’s ready to lose sight of the shoreline” – or something like that. I have the quotes around here somewhere.

I really like “Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it”, especially when you are hitchhiking across Europe or South Africa or launching a new expedition.

It’s late and I’m tired but I wanted to start this new blog – Life is a Trek – as I woke up from a dream this morning thinking about this idea. When I was tracing my heritage through travel and adventure (I never regret a moment as it provides me with invaluable memories and themes to share as a writer), I used to send “colorful” letters and cards to family and friends who now serve. I eat a nervous newspaper, like looking at old things.

Most of what I will use to post here was sent to my friend Steve Gwinn in Toledo, Ohio, who is now dead, but kept all my letters and cards I found in his closet. Reading them was bittersweet.

The last time I saw Steve was when he and another friend dropped me off at Detroit International Airport to leave again for Israel in 1995. I gave him a hug and kiss goodbye, having no idea it would be the last. But life is a journey, and all journeys must come to an end…or at least a pause.