Softypapa’s search is complete
My desert adventure is over. The heat got to me. And I missed home. So I went home. The takeaway from this short trip was that the thing I sought in the desert wilds during my 20s and 30s was clearly found in the wilds of Japan during my 40s. There’s no more need to keep searching. As doing so feels like continuing looking for my keys after I’ve just placed them in my pocket. The character of softypapa was the personification of a quest which is now complete. There’s no more need of the hat, the camera or the wild. That doesn’t mean I won’t still return to wild places. After all, it’s still fun to drive, hike, explore and think alone far from others and the routines and conventions of daily life. But now it’s time – with what little time is left – to do something useful with what I found out there in the empty.
From the original archive
First published on softypapa.wordpress.com on June 17, 2016. Original text, photographs, links, and embedded media preserved.
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