Author shares stories from the road
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on March 12, 2017 1:45 AM
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The display at the entrance to Wayne County Public Library features the recently released book by Andrew Forsthoefel, author of "Walking to Listen," chronicling his yearlong 4,000-mile walk across America. He will be speaking at the Friends of the Library annual meeting on March 21 at 7 p.m.
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Andrew Fostehoefel, who set out in 2011 to canvass the country on foot and armed with the sign, "Walking to Listen," which would become the title of his recently released book, chronicles the conversations and lessons collected over the yearlong trip. He will be speaking during the Friends of the Library annual meeting March 21.
Full Size
Submitted photo
Andrew Fostehoefel, who set out in 2011 to canvass the country on foot and armed with the sign, "Walking to Listen," which would become the title of his recently released book, chronicles the conversations and lessons collected over the yearlong trip. He will be speaking during the Friends of the Library annual meeting March 21.
When Andrew Forsthoefel received his college degree in environmental studies and non-fiction writing from Middlebury College in 2011, he didn't know what his next steps would be.
So he decided to take a walk.
And listen.
Forsthoefel's year-long trek across the U.S. at age 23 is chronicled in his new book, "Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time." He will be speaking at the annual meeting of Friends of Wayne County Public Library on Tuesday, March 21, at 7 p.m. in the Gertrude Weil Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public,
"(The book) struck me as a conversation that we need right now," said Donna Phillips, library director. "There's been a lot of divisiveness in this country. It just seems like this is a healing conversation and I'm so excited that he's able to come and join us."
Now 28 and living in Northampton, Massachusetts, Forsthoefel admits he did not have a specific plan at the outset.
"When I decided I was going to start walking and listening, I said that I would either walk until I reached my budget, which was about $4,000, or until I got to some point where it just felt like I found what I was looking for and I was done -- sort of like Forrest Gump-style, get to the middle of the desert and be like, OK, I'm just done -- or until I hit the Pacific Ocean," he said. "Whichever of those three moments came first, I would stop. And it ended up being the Pacific Ocean."
He actually felt "pretty well done" around the time he reached Nevada, he says. It was about 10 months in and he was admittedly tired and lonely but also "full" from the encounters and conversations he had gotten to have.
"I had received so much from my solitude and from just the land and then from the countless people I got to meet," he said.
All his questions were not answered, he said, but some valuable connections had been made -- to himself, to the land and to his fellow Americans.
Since he was so close to the Pacific Ocean, though, a stubborn little part of him forced him to keep going to reach that milestone, he said.
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It did not take long for Forsthoefel to get a sense that his trip could be worthwhile.
"The very first day," he said without hesitation.
The road can be such a hostile place when you're not in a car, he said.
So, seven miles into the walk, he chose to be on some infrequently used train tracks. It was there that he encountered four Latino men he believed to be homeless.
"They saw me with my big backpack and when I told them I was walking to listen all the way across America, they gave me cookies and apple juice boxes and invited me to sit with them," he said. "And when it started raining, they invited me to come take shelter out of the rain in their home, which it turned out to be was across the field in the forest and in this little camp behind a strip mall that I had been to many, many times before.
"I found myself sitting with them, listening to their stories and just getting this glimpse into the reality of this home, a reality that I never knew anything about until I put myself out there and decided to start listening."
Forsthoefel was amazed to find that by the time they parted a short while later, he felt sadness.
There had been a connection, he said, as they had offered him aid when he needed it most.
That really set the tone for the quest, he said.
"I ended up being on the road for almost a full year, and (having) more experiences like that that I can remember, which is why I decided to write this book because there are just so many stories like that that are truly inspiring," he said. "Just these people, the way they showed up, the way that they shared themselves.
It was as if he was getting a peek into how the world could be, how America could be if people all were willing to listen to one another, he said.
The journey provided the newly minted college graduate with insight -- it was like an apprenticeship in listening, he said.
Hundreds of stories were collected, from all kinds of people representing a variety of ages, backgrounds, ethnicities and belief systems.
It was beautiful and yet challenging at times, he says.
"I got to see in many of the people who took me in and showed me such generosity and kindness and then they shared their stories of their own heartbreak and their own humanness," he said. "I also saw their racism or their bigotry, you know, prejudice or hatred in some form or another."
The latter provided him with more awareness of the differences that can divide or bring people together.
It also reflects the current climate going on in this country, which Forsthoefel said he understands.
He himself had a tough time with some of his encounters, especially those dealing with race or hatred. But the situations also provided him with lessons in approaching such conversations.
"It would happen in different ways. On my bad days I would hear something like this and I would shut down," he said. "I wouldn't know how to say something. I would clam up and just let it pass and that felt really horrifying for me.
"I mean, Martin Luther King Jr. talked about the appalling silence of the good people and how that is the enabler of the violence of the bad people."
Forsthoefel learned to speak up, ask questions, drop the defensive posture and really listen.
"You're not trying to change someone. You're just trying to find out who they are and understand them and then they have space to change," he said.
What began as an opportunity to learn more about others also allowed him to learn more about himself, he said.
He connected with complete strangers he would never have otherwise met, calling it a privilege and a burden that we should all have.
"You don't have to walk across America to connect with people, to connect with your neighbors, the people you live right next door to and have never actually met," he said.
For him, the passion has propelled him into the desire to keep the dialogue going. In addition to the book, he has taken his message into public speaking and leading workshops on bridge-building connections.
"The important thing I'm walking with now and doing my best to practice, too, is how to keep listening and reaching out and connecting when I'm not wearing a sign on my back that says, 'Walking to Listen,'" he said. "I don't know how that will continue to evolve, but I'm listening.
"I'm listening to find out."