56 Marbles
Baby please don’t go. Baby please don’t go. Baby please don’t go down to New Orleans you know I love you so, Baby please don’t go.
Van Morrison
Tonight I had my last shift at the restaurant before going down to New Orleans. I’m excited and a bit nervous. The stuntman from Marble 223 came into the restaurant tonight. He had recently been in New Orleans shooting a movie. When he heard I was going there alone he warned me, “It’s a dangerous city,” he said, “lots of gun violence, not a great place for you to be going on your own.”
I didn't know if he views the world as an unsafe place for a woman on her own. Better saddle up to a man for protection, the more muscular the better (and oh, he just happens to be really muscular). Was this genuine concern or was he still trying to make the moves on me?
Van Morrison
Tonight I had my last shift at the restaurant before going down to New Orleans. I’m excited and a bit nervous. The stuntman from Marble 223 came into the restaurant tonight. He had recently been in New Orleans shooting a movie. When he heard I was going there alone he warned me, “It’s a dangerous city,” he said, “lots of gun violence, not a great place for you to be going on your own.”
I didn't know if he views the world as an unsafe place for a woman on her own. Better saddle up to a man for protection, the more muscular the better (and oh, he just happens to be really muscular). Was this genuine concern or was he still trying to make the moves on me?
Then I got home. On my answering machine there was a message from my brother-friend in Georgia, “Hey Sis, be careful in New Orleans. It’s not Vancouver. Watch your back.”
Really? My pseudo-brother has only ever been supportive of intrepidness in every form.
I was beginning to doubt this whole adventure. I could take the warnings earlier in the week from Ex-man, actually I expected them, but the three warnings together were starting to shake my resolve.
I was beginning to doubt this whole adventure. I could take the warnings earlier in the week from Ex-man, actually I expected them, but the three warnings together were starting to shake my resolve.
Perhaps I am crazy, going down to New Orleans by myself to research a series that I'm writing for school. But I’m not really writing it for school. I’m writing it for me and I want it to be the best that it can be and I want it to be authentic. How can it be authentic, if I know nothing about the location except what I’ve learned from books? Besides, I won’t be on my own, I thought, I’m on a mission, and whenever there’s a mission, there’s guidance and, with any luck, protection.
I soothe the three warnings with three quotes on courage and certainty:
- If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late. Lee Iacocca
- Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. Andre Gide
- I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing that I wanted to do. Georgia O'Keefe
So I finish packing my suitcase and I ready myself for uncertainty and adventure...
Do you let uncertainties hold you back? What would it take to embrace uncertainty?
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