I had the fortune to hear Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild, through UCSB Arts and Lectures. I enjoyed the book and was excited when I saw her in the Winter line up of speakers. Guess I’m a fan girl.
Campbell Hall was filled: 80:20 ratio of female to male audience members. Young, pony-tailed, blonde women as far as the eye could see. Strayed didn’t assume that anyone had read the book and gave detail about the plot and process of her journey. She read 2 passages from the book, her voice changing from a speaking to a performing voice. Her readings included the story about putting on her overweight backpack named Monster for the first time and the story when she met a man who interviewed her for “Hobo Times” with her protests that she wasn’t a hobo.
Strayed also wrote the “Dear Sugar” advice column for therumpus.net. The columns were turned into a book and she read one of the columns to the group.
In the Q&A section, the question was asked: if you were to do this journey now, what would you tell your 26 year old self? Strayed replied: 1. yes, do the journey, 2. get good boots, 3. now that there is internet, find out more than what she had to go on in 1995. She noted that although it would have been better for her to have had more information about the trail in the pre-internet age, she pondered that there is something about NOT knowing what to expect. There’s the adventure, exploration and revelation in an experience.
Strayed’s journey speaks to those who have felt loss, who have felt lost, and through a journey, found their transformative process.