“I will walk into the sunshine with you or you will not be my friend. I will instruct you and you will instruct me. I will learn things from you and you will learn things from me. Otherwise you can’t be my friend.” –Robert Guillaume

I found this quote in a newspaper in Texas in February 2004. It was in a section of the paper celebrating black history month. It has resonated with me for years and accompanied my signature on just about every Gmail I’ve sent out since 2004. Buddy Wakefield once told me it was the most apropos quote from someone like me. It is featured and credited in my first book. It comes from the book A Wealth of Wisdom from Simon & Schuster.

This quote has been hitting me hard lately. I realized that I make friends like McDonald’s makes kids fat. Sometimes I wonder what my impact is as a friend vs. those that see themselves as fans. I seem to skip the acquaintance phase of a relationship and call everyone my friend. I really do believe that strangers are merely friends I haven’t had the pleasure to meet yet.

I have been mailing more postcards and correspondence of late as well. I am really trying to connect on deeper, more tangible levels. I have re-re-reconsidered my use of Facebook and Twitter as these distant, disconnected forms of communication. More like email with pictures. I wish my website was enough to keep people connected and informed when I cannot be in their presence.

Here I sit at the Java Zone in Oberlin, Ohio, after a wonderful Nite Kite Poetry Revival show with Timmy Straw (amazing songwriter!), Anis Mojgani and Buddy Wakefield, and I realize more and more that I love the road and I love home. The two are not mutually compatible. This tour feels like the end of an era for everyone in the van. Each one of us has something to go back to after this. We’ve put so much on hold to be out here. This is the last tow for this specific group of bards and silly minstrels. While it is sad it is also very interesting to sit back and watch with wonder who will take the mantle. Who’s next to try on these streets to see how they fit? Who’s coming to the microphone next to tell it like it is or could be? Who wants to jump in a vehicle and go? Who’s willing to risk everything and put it out there in front of a group of strangers? It’s pretty easy when you give the love you get.

“Puddin’” and “Like” and “Open Letter to Neil Armstrong” are fun to perform, but they need a little break. I want to hear and feel more quality work. I want to write and perform more quality work.

My goal for the winter is to write. I’ve started the process and have gotten myself into a pattern of writing, even from the road. I will publish more work in journals and periodical literary publications. I have essays and thoughts to put to paper. I also have Scrabble™ tournaments to enter… I have 1,000 pages to write by September 2011. I have yoga and quality eating to do. It will be the busiest hibernation I’ve ever willingly set forth. I will grow the fuck up. I will be historically relevant and helpful. I will open my eyes a little more each year before I die. I will lose weight and climb trees. I will visit Worcester every year and beat someone at poker in MacMillan’s basement. I will visit Vancouver every year and marvel at what a wonderful home it has been to me over the years. I will visit Chicago and wonder why I don’t live there yet. I will visit Albuquerque and feel like an hermano to every poet there. I come back to Oberlin. I will. I will. I will. I give my word. This town is beautiful.

Anis, Buddy and I all wondered what Oberlin would be like. None of us had ever been here. We prepared for a sleepy town of people who do not know spoken word. We were blessed with a raucous crowd of rabid spoken word aficionados, plus the likes of fellow poets Blaire Miller Bommer, Keisha Foster, Taylor Johnson, and Dain Michael Down. After a standing ovation and dozens of hugs, plus some crying and a whole lot of love, we went to a candy store and acted like kids.

I will tour again in the spring. I will not tour again with more than two other people. Three should be maximum membership to any spoken word group. I assure this is a wise assessment from experience and not just my own. I will not tour for more than a month at a time, except for Europe.

While sitting here and writing, a lovely young lady approached me to say that I was “really, very funny last night.” That is a splendid compliment and confirmation. I have found the write path.

I am a lucky man. I am a lucky man. I am a lucky man.

I love my friends. I love you. Now get a long.

Oh, and I can’t wait to get voracious on this: http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780520267190-0

Also, I have not forgotten about the Gabrielle Bouliane Award or my Short Ones For the Shitter chapbook compilation, I have just had a few too many financial setbacks for the time being. Get eff’d September 2010!

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This entry was written by Mike McGee, posted on 7 October, 2010 at 10:59 AM, filed under Personal Updates and tagged 2010, advice, anis mojgani, buddy wakefield, friends, touring, winter. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.