When you're high for most of your life, you really have no clue what happened to you during all those years. The past is a blur. I don't know people that I know; I don't remember things that I did. I don't remember much of anything. So when I was in my 40s, I decided to map out the terrain by writing my life story. This wasn't easy but I had to clear away the blur. It was really irritating me.
What I did was take random memories and then try to line them up in time. Writing it on a computer really helped because I could write several memories down and then jiggle their order until they seemed to be in the right place. Little by little, I added more memories until I filled the years out. And I used real-life events (like Woodstock, or when a movie came out) to nail the memories to dates.
In the end, I got my life story down on paper -- though to this day, I still run into memories that make no sense and which I can't place in time. It was rewarding to finally sit down and read the finished thing. Afterward, I almost cheered -- "So that's what I did!" It was strange too, almost like reading about someone else. Still, I assume this must be the record of my life, as well as it can be reconstructed, anyway.
I've been thinking of serializing some of it here -- stuff like a wild trip cross-country with other hippies in a broken-down vehicle that said, "California or Bust" on the side. Eluding the cops; getting caught by the cops. Fun stories that bring the hippie days back to life. Anyway, if I can't come up with an idea for a post sometime (an eventuality that seems highly unlikely) I may put some of it up here. It won't be boring, I promise. I've had a mighty strange life.
What I did was take random memories and then try to line them up in time. Writing it on a computer really helped because I could write several memories down and then jiggle their order until they seemed to be in the right place. Little by little, I added more memories until I filled the years out. And I used real-life events (like Woodstock, or when a movie came out) to nail the memories to dates.
In the end, I got my life story down on paper -- though to this day, I still run into memories that make no sense and which I can't place in time. It was rewarding to finally sit down and read the finished thing. Afterward, I almost cheered -- "So that's what I did!" It was strange too, almost like reading about someone else. Still, I assume this must be the record of my life, as well as it can be reconstructed, anyway.
I've been thinking of serializing some of it here -- stuff like a wild trip cross-country with other hippies in a broken-down vehicle that said, "California or Bust" on the side. Eluding the cops; getting caught by the cops. Fun stories that bring the hippie days back to life. Anyway, if I can't come up with an idea for a post sometime (an eventuality that seems highly unlikely) I may put some of it up here. It won't be boring, I promise. I've had a mighty strange life.
