Go The Distance

Earlier in the evening, I was reading some posts over on written inc, technology analyst Carmi Levy's blog. I left a comment on one post he did about obtaining autographs from some local baseball players where he lives and that got me to thinking.

Back in the 1990s, I was into collecting first edition hardbound books. I still have a good number of books in storage, and one that I prize the most is a 1982 1st edition of WP Kinsella's Shoeless Joe - which was adapted in the late 1980s into the film Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner.

During that time, I worked at Harbourfront in Toronto where they had an annual Authors Festival and a Reading Series that brought in a wide range of well known and lesser known authors. I knew Kinsella was going to be doing a signing after his reading, so I sought out a copy of Shoeless Joe at a rare and used book store on Queen West in Toronto. Field of Dreams had been was immensely successful a few years before, so this was not a cheap purchase. Lord knows I am whistling a different tune now, but at the time I felt it worthwhile to buy a copy for him to sign.

I lined up with everyone else to get it - and a copy of the book he was actually promoting, signed.  I wasn't the only one to have more than one book, but I was the only one with a Shoeless Joe. I recall him  being pleasantly surprised and saying he had not seen a first edition in quite a while.

Recently, I have been having a really hard time with, well lots of things, and it has been quite literally impossible to make ends meet. It seems like not just success is out of my grasp, but living as opposed to just existing is as well. I struggle with my perception of my self worth, with missed opportunities to photograph what I want how I want, and with how I can continue to do photography in any manner at all.

It's not in front of me, but I recall Kinsella inscribing the book to me 'Go the distance.' And I think that was something I needed to be reminded of today. I either keep plugging away at photography or I don't. Finish what I started or hang up my hat. But either way, pick one or the other and don't do it in a half measure. I can't not photograph, so I guess that gives me an answer. I just need to find a way to translate that into reality.

And go the distance.

Mike