Douglas Adams
Meeting my Heroes is an occasional essay series from Matt Carmichael.
When I was a freshman in college I went to a book signing near campus at one of Evanston’s many now-closed bookstores: Kroch's and Brentano's. The author Douglas Adams was reading from his latest, Mostly Harmless. It was part of the amazing “trilogy” of books called the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which I read and read and read again during middle- and high-school. I cannot recommend it enough. It has some of my favorite lessons about life, poetry, friendship, mattresses, dolphins, ballpoint pens, space travel and fear.
One of the things that struck me early on was a theory about hitchhiking across the galaxy. As I’ve said you should always have a Sharpie. But Adams, through his character Ford, took that a step further. He had a satchel (which I thought was cool) and it was full of things he’d need on his travels. One of the things was a towel.
From “The Guide: “a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”
This all informs my thoughts on everyday carry, but we’ll get to that later after I meet someone new this week.
But anyway, there was a strict “buy a book get/one thing signed” policy. I cheated and had brought a small index card so after he signed my book, I asked if he’d sign that too.
I’ve gotten to experience a lot of things that others haven’t and meet people others don’t get to meet. I can’t always bring people with me. But the reason all of these people I meet are important to me is usually because someone I know said, “here, you should listen to this.” Or “you should read something by so-and-so.” So I try to give back – a photo, or something signed, whatever – to let those people know I was thinking about them, and appreciate that they introduced me to something that touched me.
It’s like sending them a postcard.
This card was for a friend who was lived in a city he wasn’t doing a signing in. He graciously signed it, because heroes are gracious to their fans. He then signed a towel for the people behind me. I was jealous that I hadn’t thought of that myself. I realized something important: Creative people inspire creativity in others.
Listen to your muses. Be inspired by them. Whatever kind of thing you choose to create, as you grow up, embrace it. And then try to inspire that in others, too.