The 2018-2019 Urbantasm book tour, planned last summer, has finally come to a close. During the last seven months of touring my novel around the country, I have had the great opportunity to visit thirteen cities in eight different states.
It looks as though there will be a Phase Two of this book tour, concentrating more heavily on Michigan and the Midwest, but I’m going to take a few weeks off from travel to work on writing and make plans for the future.
However, this tour has been one of the transformative experiences of my life, and I wanted to take a few days to reflect upon that.
Everywhere I went I asked myself: “What does this city know better than any other?” “What can it teach us in Flint (or anywhere else) about how to live and learn and act in the world?”
Every place where humans live — every city — has its own kind of wisdom and I’ve tried to capture this advice, to remember and apply in the years to come.
I’m sharing it with you today.
DETROIT: What doesn’t kill you might not make you stronger. But it doesn’t kill you.
NEW YORK CITY: Pride can be full and make you lazy, but if you’re clever you can harness your pride to feed your ambition.
PHILADELPHIA: A sense of self-worth is more enduring and sustaining than the best external valuation.
AUSTIN: If people think you’re too strange, turn up your strange.
DALLAS: Don’t deny your infamy; acknowledge and explore it.
SYRACUSE: Listen to your youth.
DENVER: Nature is everywhere. Steep yourself in your environment, whatever it is, and let it pull on you and influence you.
PHOENIX: Never waste a pleasant day.
CHICAGO: A single true and loyal friend is better than the affection of a thousand strangers.
SAN FRANCISCO: Embrace your mythology.
CHICO: Keep your eyes on the horizon.
LOS ANGELES: Embrace the illusion.