Pilgrimage

Recently, a fellow Brautigan fan from France reached out to tell me that she would be traveling to San Francisco, and would I be interested in meeting her there? I am happy to report that I will be able to meet her in August.

Years ago, Chuck and I had talked about taking a Brautigan tour. (There isn't an established one that I know of, but we were going to plan our own.) His health, two young children, my job, and life prevented us from ever going on a grand tour, but we did make it to San Francisco and City Lights Bookstore where I got to meet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He was very gracious in sharing his memories of Brautigan with me.

I was telling my friend, Alice, about my upcoming trip, and she said, "This is a pilgrimage." (Alice so often uses wonderful words and gives me great art advice.) And so, now I am thinking of this trip in a different light.

If I am going on pilgrimage, what do I need to do to prepare?

I'll take my Brautiganesque hat and my shoulder bag with the word "peace" and a peace sign on it.

I will do Google searches to create an itinerary. I will post on the Brautigan Facebook page and invite others to join us. (The date is August 23rd.)

I will start taking walks.

I will reread Brautigan works set in San Francisco.

And I will read the Brautigan biography, Jubilee Hitchhiker by William Hjortsberg, that I have had for years and not tackled. I tried to when I first purchased it, but because it begins with a very graphic description of Brautigan's suicide and his undiscovered body of many weeks, I set it aside. I also think that I was/am afraid that I may not like Brautigan, the person, as much as I like Brautigan, the writer. What if I become disillusioned after 35 years of adoration? I do know he was very human with many issues, but what if he was too human?

Maybe that is part of what a pilgrimage is about. His and my humanity.