The healing road …

Over the years, my musical tastes have changed. After I got married, I discovered the undiscovered territory of progressive rock, namely the “Canadian power trio,” Rush. Neil Peart is Rush’s drummer and lyricist, and a published author. In the late 1990s Peart lost his only daughter in a car accident, and ten months later, his wife to cancer. Overwhelmed with grief and without direction, he took a hiatus from the band and for two years traveled 55,000 miles throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Belize. Peart’s travels and reflections are recounted in Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.

Peart is very introspective by nature; at times this view into his inner life makes for painfully honest reading. He is also a gifted travel writer, and the accounts of his journey are enjoyable and sometimes very witty. My only concern about this book is that it’s probably not possible for many of us to take a two-year break from our “regular lives” to work through our sadnesses and difficulties.

All it all, it was an insightful look at a (reluctant) celebrity’s passage through grief into healing. And it had my favorite kind of ending …