journal features

so this is Paris

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Paris, ON, 2004.04.02

I flew to T/O today, and met my girlfriend at the airport. Then we bolted from the city, and headed to Paris, Ontario. It's a small town near the 80's-minted conglomerate town of Cambridge, where the country's Toyotas are made. It's situated along the Grand river, and is one of those towns where the old core has somehow survived the onslaught of highways and suburban shopping. We found a funky refurbished old-style downtown hotel with high ceilings and decent appointments. We're pleased.

It's very good to be here. My girlfriend and I haven't seen each other since my birthday, which was almost a month ago. We'd been through a bit of a rocky patch what with the demands of our jobs and the 1000 kilometres that separate us.

It's really funny how miserable Toronto is. You don't really get it while you're living there - I should know, I put in some six-and-a-half years, all told - but once you go back you see how up-tight and pushy everyone is. It took me only minutes to see it after arrival; while sorting out the car rental, the guy in the next line blew a gasket over nothing.

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