Where am I going next? Good question!
As I start month two of my European excursion, I ask myself (and you!) where this column/blog should be heading in the months to come.
I started this trip exactly one month ago and I think it’s a good time to reflect on what I am trying to do with this meandering missive. As I have always preached about writing, the first question you have to ask yourself is, “who is my audience? Whom am I trying to reach?”
The title, Sixty-something Solo, might reasonably lead you to think it’s for gadabout geezers who can’t find anyone to travel with. That’s a pretty tiny demographic and I don’t think that I’d be interested in reading it myself! No, the title is only intended to tell you a little about who the writer is. A lightly wizened and footloose scribbler who wants to see the world and share the insights he gathers on the way.
The audience, in my mind, is anyone who loves travel and the lessons we can learn from contact with cultures that differ from our own. It’s for explorers and wannabes who can’t just uproot their lives and pack their bags for a trip to Europe, or Africa, or East Asia and South America. I have (or will have) done all that and I know that the lessons are both cultural and practical. Vicarious travellers are more than welcome on the ride.
The blog is also for readers who want to see a variety of stories and styles, everything from photo essays to social commentary to the occasional over-the-top piece about why such-and-such a museum absolutely blew the writer’s mind. Or why another was a complete waste of money and time.
My ambition for this column is also that it live up to the journalist ideals I have tried to honour in my career. Its facts will be verified through multiple sources. (The Internet makes that much easier, thank god. Otherwise I’d spend half my trip in libraries or waiting for people to return phone calls.) The author will try to understand the local perspective and communicate it clearly to an audience who might know nothing, or almost everything, about the subject. I love it when people here tell me that they learned things in my blog that they never knew about their own community! We are rarely tourists in our own backyard and can easily walk past important emblems of our society without giving them a first thought, never mind a second.
The advantage of being an outsider is that virtually everything is new. Combine that with innate curiosity and a “belle plume,” as they say over here, and there will always be good stories to share.
I hope you think I have a belle plume, and that you find at least some of the subjects I choose interesting, amusing or even shocking. Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to like them all—when you write for everyone, you write for no one.
Ultimately, tho, even when you have your audience in mind, any good writer has to write for themselves. If you’re not excited about what you’re seeing, how can you bring it to life for anyone else?
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I’d love to hear what you have to say on this or any subject. The comment section here is open to all and I’m always interested in a dialogue. Feel free to be critical, to correct or to suggest. As someone who made a living for many years correcting other writers’ errors, my own skin is pretty thick and I welcome any interventions that are intended to make this a better read.
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Forgive my rather melancholy mood today. I have just watched a long documentary that explains why a Jewish school less than 100 metres from my Airbnb has barbed wire, security cameras and, on occasion, French soldiers patrolling with machine guns. I learned yesterday that a teacher and three children were killed by a young Toulousain jihadi there in March 2012. The Jihadi had also ambushed four soldiers, killing three, and sparked a massive manhunt that ended with a long siege during which the killer bragged about his exploits and said he only regretted he hadn’t killed more Jews at the school.
Soldiers and police from various agencies carrying mitraillettes and automatic rifles are commonplace here, unfortunately. This may be another thing that Toulousains (and Parisians and Lyonnais) no longer see, but it’s a hard adjustment to make for a québécois who remembers seeing the same thing on Montréal streets back in October, 1970. We have been fortunate in Canada that, since the October Crisis and War Measures Act, we have never fought terrorism with such overt, widespread and disturbing displays of militarized force.
The French history of colonialism in North Africa put a target on its back and the country’s civilians have too often paid the price. From our North American perspective, heavily armed soldiers and police on the streets to protect Rugby World Cup crowds is too high a price to pay. But I have to ask myself if we wouldn’t say the opposite if the forces de l’ordre aren’t there to stop another incident like the 2016 truck attack in Nice that killed 86 people.
There are no easy answers to questions like this. Violence is an innate human trait that won’t be going away any time soon. I just wish I wasn’t reminded of it every time I turn the corner.
