I am currently reading the book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig for the second time and this time it is like I am reading a whole new book. I believe it is because of where I am as a photographer because in 2012 I started to feel lost.

In his book, Pirsig talks about how Phaedrus began to hike in the mountains of Montana to attain silence so he could explore lateral trails of thought. His writing brought visions of a young college kid in the 50’s sitting in a high alpine meadow meditating in the sun. In his head he walked the trails to different mountain peaks, not knowing what answers he would find or even the questions that the peaks held. The idea is called lateral drifting in the book. That means that instead of moving forward with the same idea, he was pushing himself into new ideas that were located to the left and right of his current idea. Not all the trails lead to somewhere, so he would go back to the beginning and pick another trail. Lateral drifting is meant to help you find a new path that you can blaze you idea ahead on.

Read More