escape into a book

When I was a young boy my parents would take the family camping. It was something they enjoyed and it gave them a break from the stress back in civilization. My father grew up in a small town in Oregon and raising a family with seven children in 1960's Sacramento, California (a city about 24 times the size of the one he grew up in) was a source of considerable pressure. We eventually returned to Oregon and the small town life my father was used to. Our vacations then consisted of annual trips to the Homestead in Eastern Oregon for deer hunting season.  As a child, I did enjoy those trips, the smell of the campfire, playing with my cousins, sleeping in a tent.

But when I was eleven, the hunting trips stopped. Dad's work schedule clashed with hunting season. In fact, we no longer took vacations. Instead we had the occasional and rare day-trip to the beach and once to the Wild Life Safari in Winston, Oregon. I really didn't mind. By that time I had discovered movies. Movies became my vacations. I could leave the pressures of high school and sit in a theater and be transported into an exciting world of make-believe.

It was about this time that I discovered writing could be an escape, a fun "mini-vacation." I could create my own world and the people in it. Even though they don't always do what I want, in the end, it all worked out.

After I graduated, I made another discovery, reading for enjoyment. In three months I read six books which is funny when you consider I couldn't even finish one book in four years for my literature classes. I found that reading, just like the movies and writing, allowed me to enter into a new world, meet new people and walk around without having to spend a lot of money or travel miles to get away. I would get so absorbed in the story I would lose all track of time and when I reached the end, I found that I missed the characters and couldn't wait to return. (I love series novels for that reason.)

Now, I don't take vacations. Instead I escape into a book - either writing one or reading.  You can too. Pick up a book, find a quiet spot and take a mini-vacation.