WORDS CHANGE US
I submitted my memoir to agents. The book’s working title is: Shiva Blues: A Seeker’s Journey.
It’s about travel, kicking an addiction to strong pharmaceuticals, and trying to live against the grain of American Big Alpha toxic masculinity…but, primarily, the book is about personal transformation.
Is transformation possible? If so, how do we do it?
To that end, I’m starting a new miniblog on social media called, WORDS CHANGE US.
When I first read tonight’s passage, I was in 9th grade, and I’d never taken drugs. But these words practically leaped off the page, swirled around my bedroom bestrewn with famous sports figures, and then bore into my little teenage skull.
I knew…. I just knew…that…
1. there must be more to the world than Kansas.
2. I wanted to use my imagination and be a writer when I grew up.
3. I wanted my life to be an adventure.
Here goes (and it doesn’t get much better than this for opening passages):
“We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like ‘I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive….” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: ‘Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?” –Hunter S. Thompson
What words changed you???
Brad Wetzler is the author of Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing (Hachette Go) and Real Mosquitoes Don’t Eat Meat (W.W. Norton). A former senior editor at Outside, he is a memoir writing coach, podcaster, and yoga teacher. He writes books and pens the Enlightened-ish newsletter on Substack.com. He also hosts Enlightened-ish Podcast about adventure, healing, emotional wellness, faith, and spirituality. He lives in Boulder, Colorado.