Bushby has walked approximately 36,000 miles (58,000km), breaking the record for the longest unbroken foot journey and far exceeding the 25,000-mile circumference of the world. When he gets home he will be the first person to have walked continuously across the world, visiting 29 countries.

Now that’s a way to spend a life. 28 years, from 1998 to 2026, from Chile to the North of England.

“I took death seriously. You’re dying, you’ve got one life, and what are you going to do with it? That really resonated with me.”

The guy crossed the Bering Strait, the Atacama Desert and the Darién Gap.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

Joining the Merchant Navy allowed gay men to escape the atmosphere back home [and to] travel the world

This comes from Professor Paul Baker in Fabulosa!, his wonderful history of the Polari language.

In his chapter about the escape into the Merchant Navy for young queer men of oppressive 1950s Britain, Baker transcribes part of a drag performance by Lorri Lee about how she and her friend Crystal allegedly ended up on the ocean waves. It begins when they follow a pair of good-looking men into what transpires to be a shipping careers office:

“where have they gone?” “they’ve gone in that door,” I said. “I bet it’s a club.” It’s only a shipping pool wasn’t it. And they’re all round the door these geezers, saying “go on, girls,” and pushed us right up the front. And the geezer giving out these jobs, he says “Yes? Do you want a ship?” So I says “in for a penny, in for a bleedin’ pound,” so I says “you got any?” So he said, “What are you? Are you a waiter?” I said, “Oh, yes, I’ve been waiting a long time.”

Baker:

Forging their references, they embarked on a voyage of a lifetime and never looked back.

Imagine that! Being able to bullshit up some credentials and to just go, expenses paid.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

“Let’s get the Hell out of here,” I said. I plotted out a quick escape, leading us into unknown territory.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

Let me know if you try to buy something and it explodes.

It’s significant because it was written by David Allen, someone who has devoted a career to encouraging productivity in others. He’s the guy behind Getting Things Done or GTD:

All this fuss and bother about personal organization and information management and knowledge work and AI and the increasing stress levels of our culture. It’s enough to… what?

How about pruning my Japanese maple this afternoon, with a fabulous bottle of Belgian ale to assist? How about some sweet schmoozing with our two little spaniels? An ad hoc hug with my wife in our kitchen, as she does what she does so well there? How about just taking time to take time for — nothing?

It’s a reminder that “activity” and getting your shit together should really be in service of something: our humanity. If we take our eye off this prize, work so easily takes over. And becomes pointless.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

Most people’s Saturdays, it seems, are as busy as any weekday, while Sundays are no longer sacrosanct.

The weekend was once the week’s well-earned dessert but its ice-cream has long been melted by the burdensome breach of busyness. The slop we now have can perhaps be refrozen, but it will never again be the confection of yesteryear.

Besides, if we’re gradually learning to escape work, the weekend doesn’t make much sense anymore:

Weekends were built for factory labor, not Zoom meetings. The global rise of four-day workweeks show how arbitrary our current set-up is. Why not two-day workweeks if the work can still be done?

Sabbaths began as days of rest. That antiquated thinking dangerously frames such rest in service of labour. I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I think God wants more for me than the life of a dishrag whose only peace is on the drying rack in between meals.

So what to do? One way or another:

Make time for yourself. For your loved ones. For your hobbies. For your ambitions. For your booty calls. For your bubble baths. For sushi. For tennis. For tattoos. For book club. For therapy. For karaoke. For leg day. For Lego. For mahjong. For your journal. For your marathon. For your second helping of cheesecake and your umpteenth viewing of The Golden Girls. For Final Fantasy Resonance or Grand Theft Auto VI – or both. For that trip to Japan. For that colonoscopy. For whatever you want whenever you want – because nobody, absolutely nobody, logs their achievements or fond memories in categorization by days of the week. We cannot list the top five Wednesdays of our lives.

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Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

Aged about 28 and working at General Electric, Vonnegut Jr. writes to Vonnegut Sr.:

I sold my first story to COLLIER’S. Received my check ($750 minus a 10% agent’s commission) yesterday noon. It now appears that two more of my works have a good chance of being sold in the near future.

I think I’m on my way. I’ve deposited my first check in a savings account, and, as and if I sell more, will continue to do so until I have the equivalent of one year’s pay at G.E. Four more stories will do it nicely, with cash to spare (something we never had before). I will then quit this goddamn nightmare of a job, and never take another one so long as I live, so help me God.

I don’t know when my first story will be published. It may take several months. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m happier than I’ve been for a good many years.

Come east soon.

Love,
K

And the rest is history.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

I found myself wondering what came of him. Did he win his case? Did he find another job? Did he take his winnings and live on a yacht?

The myth-busting website Snopes has part of the answer:

a court in Paris ruled that Frédéric Desnard’s employer had subjected him to “moral harassment” and bullying, including deliberately subjecting him to “bore-out” at work.

And:

Mere boredom was far from the only mistreatment suffered by Desnard, who argued he was deliberately marginalized and humiliated at work for four years, causing him to become withdrawn and clinically depressed.

But:

While Desnard had asked for hundreds of thousands of euros in damages and compensation, the court ultimately sanctioned just €40,000.

It’s a pretty good moral victory and 40k is certainly a healthy escape fund to get you on the road, but I’m worried about Desnard now because 40k probably wasn’t enough to retire on (though maybe it was?) and because all that comes up when you Google his name now is his kooky employment tribunal. This help him to get another job.

I decided to do some modern “journalism” and ask him. I found his LinkedIn page, which was plastered in profile updates about bore-out, which made me wonder if he’s become working some sort of anti bore-out consultant. But when I tried to befriend him, he deleted his page. Good!

We respect your right to disappear, Monsieur Desnard. Good luck wherever you are.

*

Escape with the best of them by reading New Escapologist Issue 19.

And you know what? You probably don’t need a smartphone. Personally, I’ve made peace with having one, but it repays to rethink these things. The considered life and all.

In August’s latest newsletter, she explains that publishers no longer send authors on book tours, so she’s decided to cross the USA on her own terms and at her own expense.

For a book like mine, addressing the decline of culture in the digital age, in-person events are crucial. Only by convening in a physical space can we escape algorithmic pre-determination and open ourselves up to the organic, unpredictable unfolding of Real Life.

This is great. Her position of integrity reminds me of my favourite Jaron Lanier quote, which I find genuinely empowering. I carry it in my heart:

You, you, you, have the affirmative responsibility to invent and demonstrate new ways to live without the crap that is destroying society. Quitting is the only way, for now, to learn what can replace our grand mistake.

If you happen to be America, please consider visiting August on tour and buying the book. It’s one in the eye for the supremacy of boring digital business practices that are wrecking the world and a vote for personal integrity.