Ever been spontaneous



A WILD HAIR

Ever been spontaneous?

We all have at one time or another. Even “anal-retentive” engineer types or those stern conservative personalities. They’re the funniest to be around when spontaneity happens because they lose control of their “rigid”, fixed personalities and start acting like a kid. It’s wonderful to see. It’s good for them too.

In those times of spontaneity we have no time for planning, we just “go”.

It can best be described by the idiom “Wild Hair.”

You’ve heard the term. It means a sudden spontaneous action done without plan.

It lands you very solidly in a wonderful place called “present time”. You are here in the moment – because you have to be, because without a plan it’s all happening right now. There’s no future, and even better, you are disconnected from the past—a past full of warnings and training patterns you’ve been programmed to follow and barriers you must avoid. All that stuff goes away. You’re here, right now, experiencing it, you’re alive, no longer in the dead past or the non-existent future.

What happens when you have time to “think” about it?

You spend hours tinkering with the latest equipment. You “organize” everything. You put your specialized clothing and shoes in their proper place and all your gadgets in the appropriate pocket in your latest and greatest goretex, multiflex, UV resistant, ultralight, polypropolyzine pack (because some “expert” said you need it). You have an “eventual” for every eventuality, a map for every step, a GPS to locate you, a special tool for every action, an article of clothing for every body part, an energy bar for every chemical reaction in the body, a shoe for every terrain and a drink to balance every electrolite.

Now you think you’re going on an adventure?

The only adventure is how to keep all your gadgets working or figuring out which protein needs to be replenished in what organ! The only challenge is in which pocket did you put your 3-way multi-flanged optical photon spotter to get the exact UV index to determine the appropriate SPF rating for your sunblock! (Because you’ve been told so authoratively by authoritarians that the sun is “dangerous”.).

OK, I’m being sarcastic and I certainly wouldn’t do something like rock climbing—at my skill level—without climbing equipment. But doesn’t it go a bit too far these days?

Don’t we really admire the free climber more than the man with the 50 lb. rack full of $250 “never fail” cams for every crack? Don’t we kinda glaze over when some expert starts expounding ad-nauseum his knowledge and try to prove we understand—when we don’t—by handing over the credit card.

Ever been scared on a climb? I have. Well I bet in that moment you forgot everything you “learned”. And if you didn’t die, you looked back on the experience and realized you were “right there”. All the office politics and the stress about money and the family situations and the stock market and the 401K etc., etc., etc. blah blah blah disappeared. And there you were—just you and a rock.

And it was good. And that’s what you take away from the climb.

What is the concept of “Wild Hair?”

It’s spontaneity that lands you squarely where you are at, in the moment.

It’s “Hey Joe I heard something about the worlds longest underground river somewhere in the jungles of Borneo.” Let’s go find it.”

No further data, no research, no consulting with the “authorities”, just go.

How do you get there? I don’t know.

Is there a jungle—or a rain forest—in Borneo?

Maybe.

Where is it?

Well, I think it’s part of Malaysia or maybe Indonesia.

OK, that’s it—our first step. How to get to Borneo?

Joe grabs the smartphone (our only “crutch”) and does a search.

“Did you find a flight?”

“Yeah, the website said there’s a ‘special vacation package’. A quick call and we find they have a last minute deal.”

“Good enough, let’s go.”

Enough research. Credit card has been given. Done.

See what I mean. That’s the “Wild Hair” way.

I have no idea what will happen when we get there. But we’ll figure it out then. Until then, no thinking allowed.

It’s all in present time.

Maybe they’ll lose our reservations. Maybe the website is bogus. Maybe Borneo is now a country with another government under another name. Maybe we need to get a VISA; whatever.

You see? Anything that happens just adds to the adventure!

We start out in total ignorance and are forced, by getting into communication with the people and things in the environment, to find a way.

Maybe we’ll get there and find out that the river is nowhere near the place we have made reservations for. Maybe we have to find someone in town who knows someone who has a relative who lives in that area and they might be willing to give us a ride on the back of their motorcycle. Maybe there’s some well organized French expedition here to explore the river and we can catch a ride (then ditch ‘em). Maybe “Waipai” – a friendly guy, who speaks a little English that we met at the Bar – will drive us to the river.

Whatever.

If you’re some conservative person, you’re probably furling your conservative brow and thinking that’s totally illogical, you can’t just…

Stop! I don’t want to hear it. Go away. Go “organize” something.

The object is the underground river.

And maybe we end up discovering an old P51 Mustang that crashed in the rain forest in 1940 – and the locals have idolized it ever since. Maybe we never find the river.

As long as the story is interesting! As long as it fits under the category of “Wild Hair”.

This is living by your wits every day. This is adventure.

I like to write about these things—personally, informally and humorously. I’ve never bothered to try to get anything published, but my stories and poems are all over my families walls and scrapbooks. They keep saying “you’ve got to submit this!” Well, I’m submitting. Actually I had an agent last year that said he could sell two of my novels. He turned out to be a dud so I’m out soliciting again.

OK, so what qualifies me for this?

I’m ignorant!

That’s right. That IS a qualification! Because this is NOT a story to be written by someone who “knows”. To qualify as a “wild hair” the story MUST be told by someone who doesn’t know. That way it communicates, because the reader doesn’t know either—and we both find out. Which brings up my other qualification, I do communicate. But then, you be the judge of that.

A Wild Hair is an adventure into the unknown.

Maybe the “unknown” is throwing a dart at a map or a spinning globe and just going there, then following a road or a trail that leads to someplace that you have no idea where. And if lands on Des Moines, Iowa—well I don’t know anything about Des Moines. I guarantee I can make it an adventure. Heck, I’ve made an adventure out of finding my car in a parking garage! If the dart lands in some no-inhabited spot in Mongolia…yikes! Here goes nothing! But then again, Des Moines might turn out even more interesting. Who knows!

Remember Charles Kuralt? Now that guy was interesting because he made anything interesting. How about Charles Kuralt without a plan, without a crew, lost somewhere - that’s me. I think I’m pretty interesting too.

Wild Hair doesn’t require research, it requires communication with what is happening right now.

But before I go to LA and pitch this idea to the mucky mucks there, I would like to propose this to you. Because it WILL sell—my wild hair says so.

People love to hear about adventures from a personal perspective. From someone who isn’t going to bore them with technical crap that writers love to impress their readers with. This is personal, simple and from the seat of my pants to yours. Stories embellished with just enough hyperbole to make them interesting, but always honest, real and humorous in a self-deprecating rather than self-aggrandizing way.

Every issue, a new “Wild Hair”. Meanwhile a website is continually updated with a blog and a daily account of “what went unpredictably wrong” or “what went inexplicably right” – all recorded on a GoPRO.

Yeah, I don’t put all the prepositions before of the nouns and the subjects don’t always have a predicate and I always get a bunch of green lines when I run the “spelling and grammer check”, but again, you be the judge.

So this is the “Wild Hair” idea – or the “hair brained” idea – but if it tickles your fancy (or any other body part), it just might tickle your readers.

I’m just looking for someone to invest in the idea – whether it be a blog or a magazine periodical, I don’t care. This letter is obviously and example of a Wild Hair. I’m not following the correct procedure or going through the proper channels. But that’s the point. I’m just demonstrating my competence at bring incompetent!

This idea is just too good to not do and I do have the required unique, ignorant/savvy temperament for the trade and the love of telling a story.

There may be a lot of people in this world to whom I could “sell” this idea (which would be fine since I have the copyright) but you folks are my first choice so I’m proposing it to you.

What I propose is a series and enough financial support to pay a few bills and buy a few plane tickets and a room or a tent and some food. And maybe a tee shirt and a coffee mug here or there.

Hell, maybe we can just have people sign up to go on a “Wild Hair”, rather some boring vacation package.

Let me know what you think about it and if you get a wild hair, give me a call.

Thanks for your kind attention.

Jim Northrup



jwndesigner@

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