Ghost Rider by Neil Peart Chapter 8 We Are Islands to Each Other

It took the boys and I almost two weeks to get through Chapter 8 of Ghost Rider. Ever since the unfortunate imprisonment of Neil's friend, Brutus, the style of writing changes and becomes informal letter writing. As Neil pens these letters to Brutus, he periodically stops and asks, "Are you with me here? I know you are." The first time I read that out loud, a cold shiver ran up my spine...the boys also stopped looking at their books, because I suppose the way I read it, was more like I was asking them the question.

What does Neil mean by that? I questioned. One boy responded, "Neil carries Brutus with him as if he were really there." Yes, I agreed, maybe Neil needed to feel connected to something because what he once knew was gone...Jackie, Selena, the music...all of it. Only his friendships remained.

In chapter 8, Neil crosses into Mexico and gets all the way down into Belize. I shared with the boys my one and only trip to Belize. I was 18 years old, away at college. A mission group selected me to do puppets, singing and piano at a small church in Lady Ville, Belize. I spent a week there with 11 other college students. Although, the experience occurred many years ago, each face and memory remains vivid and etched deep within my psyche.

There were quite a few metaphorical terms I had to explain such as "phantom pain" and "no room at the inn." Neil describes the melancholy for Selena and Jackie as phantom pain. Missing something that used to be there, feeling their presence, but realizing that they're no longer there. I told the boys of soldiers that would lose a limb, but could still feel pain as if the limb were really there.

The end of chapter 8 had Neil back in Mexico. He left his bike to be repaired, booked a flight and headed back to Canada for the month of December.

The evening plane rises up from the runway

Over constellations of light

I look down into a million houses

And wonder what you're doing tonight

If I could wave my magic wand

I'd make everything all right

Presto, 1990

Rush - Nobody's Hero Ghost Rider Travels on the Healing Road

When I heard you were gone, I felt a shadow cross my heart.

Chapter 6 of Ghost Rider, by Neil Peart, left one with a feeling of melancholy, as we read about Neil's continued spiral into loneliness, and although his travels take him to more populace areas within the United States, the feeling of not connecting grows stronger.

To top it off, Neil's best friend, Brutus, caught trafficking drugs lands in jail. This incident becomes a tremendous set back for Neil as he was supposed to meet Brutus in a few days for some companionship.

We also discover that Neil clamors over writers of long ago, such as Jack London and Scott Fitzgerald. When visiting London's old homestead, he acknowledges the futility of death, "They (London and his wife Charmian) loved each other, did cool stuff together, but that didn't keep him alive. Or her, for that matter, though she lived on alone for many years."

We recognize that the quote doesn't just describe London, but it foreshadows Neil's possible future...a very long life, alone without Jackie.

I chose just to do some simple journal writing with the students of West Texas State School. A basic question, "What happened in Chapter 6 that caused Neil to suddenly become sad." The answer, Brutus gets locked up. The question that required some thought, "Do you agree with Neil that the world is a sad, sad place?" Explain.

I got varied responses for the second question, but one reflective response stood out among the rest, "How can you measure the sadness of the world? His sadness comes from his experience, but I don't feel that the world itself is a sad place. Shit happens, and then you deal with it. If you choose to shut down and give up, then you might as well just die, what's the point to continue on in your sadness? I'm locked up, but I got to make the most of it. Maybe I'll just fake it to make it or maybe I'll learn something and change myself, I'm not sure yet."

Totem ~~Rush First Class Saddletramp

I couldn't find a Youtube video of Rush singing and playing Totem, but I did enclose a link so that you can listen to the song.

"I believe in what I see
I believe in what I hear
I believe that what I'm feeling
Changes how the world appears."

Chapter 5 of Ghost Rider explores the idea that due to our beliefs and feelings we shape our experiences. I completely agree with Neil. Take for instance some of the boys I teach at West Texas State School in Pyote...angry young men; their experience takes the shape of disillusionment and hate. His animosity only appears towards stranger, unable to comprehend why him and why not them.

Neil does visit his brother and sister-in-law, and truly enjoys his time with them. He also pays a visit to another couple and comes to the conclusion that solitary hiking can also soothe the soul. He experiences another uncomfortable moment with a flirtatious woman. He gets the feeling that he has an aura of tragedy about him which attracts the opposite sex. During the course of writing a letter to an old friend, Neil realizes that no matter where he goes, he has a sense of having a "deep dark hole" right beside him. He ponders reincarnation when he encounters two seals that follow him on the water, only coming to the conclusion that he's too much of a rational scientist to truly believe. Chapter 5 ends with a strange visit from an owl outside his hotel window. He makes an allusion to Poe's The Raven, and acquires an eerie sensation. He remembered from the Margaret Craven novel, I Heard the Owl Call My Name; that the owl symbolized Death approaching for the one who heard it.

GHOST RIDER--Rush

Neil Peart's lyrical response to his self discovery journey.

Pack up all those phantoms
Shoulder that invisible load
Keep on riding North and West
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider

Carry all those phantoms
Through bitter wind and stormy skies
From the desert to the mountain
From the lowest low to the highest high
Like a ghost rider

Keep on riding North and West
Then circle South and East
Show me beauty but there is no peace
For the ghost rider

Shadows on the road behind
Shadows on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now

There's a shadow on the road behind
There's a shadow on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now

Sunrise in the mirror
Lightens that invisible load
Riding on a nameless quest
Haunting that wilderness road
Like a ghost rider

Just an escape artist
Racing against the night
A wandering hermit
Racing toward the light

From the white sands
To the canyon lands
To the redwood stands
To the barren lands

Sunrise on the road behind
Sunset on the road ahead
There's nothing to stop you now
Nothing can stop you now

Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about summer school, the central reason for my enthusiasm revolves around the featured class room novel, Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, by Neil Ellwood Peart.

Neil Ellwood Peart is a Canadian musician and author. He is best known as the percussionist and songwriter for the 70's rock band, Rush. Neil experiences the loss of his daughter, Selena and his wife, Jackie within a year. The devastation he feels leaves him an empty shell of a man without a purpose to live. He realizes that drugs and alcohol provide only temporary relief from the constant aloneness. This realization translates into hitting the road on his motorcycle. Neil has no doubt that he'll survive, but wonders what kind of person he'll be once it's all over.

I had to use the art of persuasion to get this book into the class room, because the normal genre of literature for this setting has been the war novel. This year the titles included; Beowulf, Red Badge of Courage, My Brother Sam is Dead, Rifles for Watie, and All Quiet on the Western Front. Even the rough and tumble boys I teach were getting a bit annoyed with the repeated genre, and pleaded for something different.

I was discussing my predicament with my good friend Robbie. I related to him that I wanted a coming of age book, chock full of self-discovery, hardship not centered around war, something the boys might be able to empathize with. He quickly suggested Neil Peart's book. I was on a mission...how to persuade my boss to allow this book into the class room.

The main character rides a motorcycle...my boss rides a motorcycle...coincidence? I think not...ripened fruit ready for the harvesting! It didn't take long, with a little of Rush playing in the background, pictures of motorcycles...my boss was sold!

The book contains 456 pages, very few illustrations and as I passed it out this morning there lingered some animosity in the air because of it's girth. I do what I always do with this surly crowd...ignore it. Direct confrontation is a really bad idea, normally you need to apply a smile, pretend to have a hearing problem and continue on.

After the grumbling ceased...I began reading the first chapter. Not a sound could be heard except the lull of my voice resonating throughout the room. Every eye glued to the page in front of them, attentiveness abounded...the boys were hooked.

We read through chapter one, where we found out about the death of his immediate family. We discovered Neil's shell like existence of no longer having a purpose to live. We learned that Neil had some spark in him, a baby soul that he needed desperately to nurture. Neil used a metaphor likening his infant soul to an unsettled baby requiring consoling by taking a ride, hoping that the motion will quiet his unrest.

Neil had come to a point in his life that he didn't "like" anything anymore. Chapter one ends with Neil seeing these two rocks jutting out of the water that had always reminded him of ducks. He then realized that he "liked" these rocks. He decided that he has to recreate his world, one that his little baby soul would be comfortable living in.