climbing mountains, opening views

Hamilton Basso, the author I have written a biography of, compared creativity or rather, writing novels, to climbing mountains. Once you've reached the top, you may be done with a book but you see another mountain looming in the distance and you cannot withstand the urge to climb that one, too. And so the journey starts all over again.

I have been thinking about this lately because we have been experiencing some job turmoil on the home front and to stop from self-obsessing or thinking about having to move to Milan or Singapore, I have jumped on my bike and biked up Wild Cat Canyon, a 2.8 mile ride uphill which leads one to Inspiration Point from where you can see the entire Bay Area if you had 360 vision. Every day when I start that climb, all my evil inner voices, those handmaidens of sloth and pride, hiss at me to turn back, relax and mind my own business. Every loop I make is debated by them, but the moment the view on the San Pablo Reservoir jumps into view, the smell of eucalyptus trees becomes more pronounced, and the remnants of fog cool my forehead, I feel euphoric--not for accomplishing the ride but for withstanding those evil women who want me to sit at home and knit sweaters. Living dangerously, daring to dream or seeking without ever finding is not their game. Writing, just like climbing mountains, comes with the risk of falling but if you are not prepared to try or fall, you will never get to enjoy the view either.

When I throw myself down that mountain with speeds that a 40-year-old mother of two should not be indulging in, I feel triumphant and these past few weeks I have experienced, for the first time in my life really, that pushing physical boundaries opens up the mental ones and when I whizz down Wild Cat, I am ready to take on the world again. I have never understood exercising for the sake of exercising or building abs of steel. It is the mind-body connection that is really interesting when you reach the kind of endorphin boost which is comparable to finishing a book that was hard to write. So feeling blue? Climb a mountain, find your view and savor the thrill.