San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
DESTINATION UNKNOWN
Happy New Year. How’s your journey going?
What’s that, you say? You’re not on a journey? That would make you the only one, since everyone is journeying constantly these days.
Forever first lady Michelle Obama is on one. “My journey is the journey of always continually evolving,” she told Oprah, explaining the title of her memoir, “Becoming.”
Ellen DeGeneres is on one, too: “After I came out, it was really one of the hardest periods of my life, but it was the best part of my journey,” she said earlier this month. So is Madonna, who clarified in August that her MTV “tribute” to Aretha Franklin (which largely focused on herself ) was merely an attempt to share “a part of my journey.” And in September Gwyneth Paltrow posted an Instagram video of herself sans makeup to thank fans of Goop, her wellness empire, for “the most extraordinary journey thus far.”
Even the president is on a journey, at least according to Kanye West. In October the rapper invoked Joseph Campbell during a visit to the White House, declaring, “Trump is on his hero’s journey right now.” Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, is on a journey of her own. Earlier this year she closed her fashion brand to focus on her day job of dismantling democratic norms, posting an open letter addressed to her “fans and customers” and typing, “Thank you for being a part of this journey with us.”
First off, you’re welcome. But more to the point: When — and why — did everyone suddenly decide to go on journeys? Where the hell are they all going? Will they ever get there?
The metaphor of life as a journey has been around since at least the 1300s when Dante wrote his “Divine Comedy,” beginning Inferno with, “Midway upon the journey of our life/ I found myself within a forest dark,/ For the straightforward pathway had been lost.” (Ever hear of Google Maps?)
Dante’s journey, at least in Inferno, led him straight to the frozen depths of Hell, but for other seekers, the journey is usually toward enlightenment. Richard Alpert, who in the course of his journey came to be known as Ram Dass, published “Journey of Awakening:
Michelle Obama: The former first lady was at SAP Center in December with Michelle Norris to discuss her “always continually evolving” journey. Ram Dass: The author of “Be Here Now,” seen at 71 studying a narcissus flower, still takes daily journeys.
A Meditator’s Guidebook” in 1978, ushering countless others along their own journeys to, as he famously advocates, “Be Here Now.” In November of this year, the former San Anselmo resident told a GQ Style interviewer he begins his day meditating because, “Using mantra, I start a journey from here (points to head) … to here (points to heart).”
From the head to the heart is a great distance, we are to understand, but surely not as great as that of Norman Podhoretz, godfather of neocons, who opened his 1967 memoir “Making It,” declaring, “One of the longest journeys
in the world is the journey from Brooklyn to Manhattan — or at least from certain neighborhoods in Brooklyn to certain parts of Manhattan.” Going from the shtetl of Brooklyn to the intellectual salons of the Upper West Side (and eventually from socialisttinged left to the hawkish right) is nothing compared to the journey from Queens to the White House, but everyone must undertake his or her own journey.
“Journey” is more than merely the cliche of choice for the Paltrows, Dasses and Podhoretzes of the world: It’s become the go-to metaphor of Ellen DeGeneres: Coming out was “the best part of my journey.”
our time. A journey can get you anywhere, but mostly it can get you out of having to explain yourself and your choices. Lost your job? Reframe it as a bump in your professional journey. Marriage fell apart? Time to embrace your divorce journey. Car broke down? Remember, the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single ride-share app.
But what if these journeys lead nowhere? What if the people relying on this most elastic term aren’t actually going anywhere, but merely dillydallying along the way? A journey, whether spiritual, Ivanka Trump: Her apparel business’ journey ended in 2018.
heroic or from running a fashion brand to running interference for your father the president, is also a place to hide.
Undertaking a journey is a way to place yourself beyond reproach since nobody can dare ask you what you’re doing along the way. Who can doubt you’re doing something — even when you’re doing nothing at all — if you claim to be on a journey? Journeys don’t need destinations, they just need to, like, Be.
Matt Haber is an Oakland freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthaber