If you'd told me back in 2009 that I'd be writing an update for this blog in 2013, I’d have said you were crazy.
Then again, if you'd told me back in 2006 that I'd try to walk across the country on foot in 2009, I'd have said you were crazy.
Shows what I know.
In any case, here I am, writing an update on a blog I'm surprised I didn’t take down years ago. I’d like to think that I kept it around for sentimental reasons, but it probably has more to do with being too lazy to delete it. Either way, I'm glad it's still here, because I have one last thing to write about.
My name is Daryl Watson. Before I became a peace pilgrim, I was a playwright and a TV writer. Nowadays, I live in Los Angeles, and I'm back to writing again.
For the longest time, I just wanted to put the whole pilgrimage behind me and get on with my life. I was embarrassed by my decision to even do it, to say nothing of the colossal failure it turned out to be. The problem was that as I re-connected with old contacts – friends and professionals – the whole walking-across-the-country thing would inevitably come up. I guess that’s my fault, since I did send out a mass email to just about every human being that I knew, telling them that I was doing a peace walk. Plus, many of them hadn't heard from me since.
Early last month, I got an email from Elna Baker, an old friend of mine from my days at NYU. Elna is a hilarious and talented writer who has been featured on This American Life. She remembered getting that mass email I sent and thought the story of my pilgrimage might be right for one of TAL's upcoming episodes.
I told her my story over the phone, she pitched it to the show producers, and a week later - December 21, 2012 – Elna was interviewing me in a recording studio at the Las Vegas NPR affiliate station.
So much for putting this whole thing behind me.
About a month before this interview went down, I was hanging out with a friend of mine. We were at a bar, it was late, and we had gotten pretty drunk and pretty honest with each other. I confessed to her that I was still struggling to find my way.
“You know what I want you to do?" my friend said. "I want you to go out...and do stuff. And then I want you to tell me about it.”
It sounded good to me then, and it still does.
Many thanks to Elna and everyone at This American Life for getting my story out there.
If you want to listen to my interview, it will be airing this weekend. Check here to find the time that your local NPR station will be playing it. The episode should also be available in the This American Life archive on Sunday.
Here’s what I’m up to nowadays:
* I’m working on a play called Unbound, which is very loosely based on my experience living down at Occupy Wall Street in 2011.
* I'm blogging about my experiments with online dating.
*I have a website (www.daryl-watson.com), but it’s still under construction. But my email is up and running, so if you want to contact me, you can do so at contact@daryl-watson.com
That’s all I got. For now. I’ll let you know when the next walk will be. Until then…
Peace Pilgrim out.
