Wanderjahr Journal

In proposing to set forth on a Wanderjahr after my 50th college reunion, I thought about whether or not to attempt a journal. I envisioned an old-fashioned composition book in which I would make entries by hand, but after some years of composing only on the computer, I did not feel happy about returning to cursive writing, particularly since it has always been my habit to correct as I write, an approach that inevitably produces a messy text that is hard to read or transcribe. My son Neil asked whether I planned a blog, and I realized that might be the easier way to compose. The problem may be that, when actually travelling, I have limited access to the Internet.

I had planned to set off on my Wanderjahr in June 2010 but could not, and I am still in Revere, MA, although I now plan to leave in late October.

In the 50th Reunion report of my class (Harvard '60), I said


"Although as certain as ever of the eventual socialist transformation of society, I have done little politically over the last five years. Members of the class of ‘60 in the Boston area must at times encounter my young comrades selling our newspaper Justice, but all that I have recently done myself is give a talk on Marxism and literature at a union hall in Boston’s Chinatown. I was again one of the Electors for Nader on his 2008 ballot petition in Massachusetts, and--not because of me--he did get on the ballot this time.

"I’ve been filling empty hours and gaps in my education by taking courses in the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement. Thus far, I’ve studied the Communist Party in the USA, the Slovenian philosopher Zizek, surrealism, the art of the Russian avant-garde, Walt Whitman, the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, and French philosophy in the twentieth century. This semester (Fall 2009) I’m taking a course on militarism, and, despite having happily given up teaching in 2002, teaching one on Dylan Thomas. I also returned to playing chess after a fifty year absence, last having played at Harvard Chess Club events as a freshman. I had to learn the algebraic notation now current and get some minimal skills back to start playing internet chess. I’m now ready to quit again, maybe for another fifty years, but it was interesting to see what is going on in the chess world.

"Diane De Santis, who joined me at the forty-fifth and will join me at the fiftieth, has been my close companion over the years in between. After the reunion, I contemplate taking a leave from HILR and embarking with Diane on a Wanderjahr, traveling mostly in Europe but perhaps also to some places in the USA. I don’t know whether I will keep a journal in which I comment on the cultural and economic landscape of the various countries in this very late phase of late capitalism. Probably not.

"Needing a break from what I’m not doing--a sabbatical from retirement--is a symptom of my usual restlessness. I still need some Great Enterprise in which, despite old age and mediocre health, I can play an active role. The poet Philip Larkin, however, reminds us that, even though we are waiting for our ship finally to come in, what really approaches is  'a black-/Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back/A huge and birdless silence. In her wake/No waters breed or break.'"

The Wanderjahr was then  to be a year's interval of travel, the word originating in the medieval practice in which a Wanderjahr or Wanderjaehre followed the period of apprenticeship. (Our word "journeyman" still reflects the medieval custom.). A friend misunderstood my word as Wandeljahr, which would be a year of change either in myself or in the economy, society, or the environment. It is quite true that I would like to identity such change in this journal/blog. Wandeljahr also is used to mean a necessary shift in the calendar to bring it into line with reality, a necessary paradigm shift as one might say. Again, I will be looking for a fundamental change in consciousness as human endeavour comes to be understood more accurately in these difficult times. My friend may have proposed a better word than I did.

My next blog entry will try to explain our historical moment and my expectations for change. I hope that it will give a better idea of what processes I hope to see at work in my travels.