What Do You Do With a Literature Degree?
Walter Rhein’s travel story, Reckless Traveler
It has been graduation time of year, in a year that has left people in limbo, with compromised job situations, or no job at all, and limited opportunities to travel. Young people are either not returning to school, or are unsure about their next step.
I read Walter Rhein’s Reckless Traveler, and mourn the inability to just GO somewhere, away. And am simultaneously grateful for our literary world, which means people can share their stories and others can read and experience.
In our current, image-crazy milieu, for fleeting moments I wanted photos of the places Rhein describes…and then I recalled how in my TV-free childhood, which was blessed with books, descriptions used to be enough. So I enjoyed his thoughtful, evocative descriptions. Yes, how it should be. Further push to get out of my chair and go see for myself.
I suspect the title of this work could just as well be “What I did with my degree in Literature,” and could be handed out to recent grads as inspiration to “find your way.”
The spirit of resourcefulness and common sense — even while always reaching for wonder and experience — is what has most struck me about this read. Recklessness, not so much maybe. (Though the stories are, to my…
