I Can Go the Distance

So for all of you Disney fans out there I hope you get the reference.  Hercules.  He hikes all over Greece to find out his destiny but he knows, "every mile will be worth my while/ I will go most anywhere to feel like I belong."  I thought of this because going the distance is the story of Bud in Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy.
 
After Bud's mother died when he was 6, Bud spent the next 3-4 years of his life in a home.  He finally decides to go the distance (120 miles to Grand Rapids) in hopes of finding a famous jazz musician.  Oh yeah, Bud is also convinced this famous jazz musician is his father. Oh one more thing Bud is 10 and planning on walking the whole way.

When Hercules went on his quest he had Phil to help him train.  Bud had his, "Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things to Have a Funnier LIfe and Make a Better Liar Out of Yourself."  Some of them are poignant, "Number 39: The Older You Get, the Worse Something Has to Be to Make You Cry" (219), some are practical, "Number 29: When You Wake Up and Don't Know for Sure Where You're At and There's a Bunch of People Standing Around You, It's Best to Pretend You're Still Asleep Until You Can Figure Out What's Going On and What You Should Do" (116), and some are funny, "Number 83: If a Adult Tells You Not to Worry, and You Weren't Worried, Before, You Better Hurry Up and Start 'Cause You're Already Running Late" (42)-but all of Bud's rules are true.

What amazed me as I read this book was how self-sufficient and determined Bud was as he walked across the state...and he is only 10!  I remember having the same thought as I read the Boxcar Children series.  It doesn't seem unreasonable as your reading but once you but the book down it hits you: wow they were children!  Bud would disagree.  He says, "Most folks think you start to be a real adult when you're fifteen or sixteen years old, but that's not true, it really starts when you're around six" (4).  I hope you're never a real adult-I hope you always have a little bit of kid in you.

After all going the distance, no matter what, to find where you belong...that's kids stuff.