journal features

again with a driver's license

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2002.09.04

So, I went to the Ministry of Transportation today, to get my Ontario driver's license going. They warned me that there might be a vision test involved when I accidentally went to the private outfit where they do some of the licensing stuff, before being re-routed to the actual gov't offices. So I turned up wondering if I should have brought my little-worn glasses. It was all for naught, though. Now, though, they want me to starve myself for three days in High Park and not come out until I've seen my life's true direction.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges