SOTW 2: Begin the Begin — R.E.M. (1986)

Michael Stipe called it “a song of personal, political activism.” It opens Lifes Rich Pageant — R.E.M.’s 1986 album — with authority. It’s written to wake you up and put you on a path. The title is the whole idea: the beginning begins itself. You don’t ease into it. You don’t plan it. It just begins.

The chapter that starts this whole thing doesn’t begin with a plan. It begins in a geothermal bath at 12,900 feet in Ecuador with a broken crew — one man sent home with cracked ribs, another refusing to surrender on a grapefruit ankle, a third leaving in the morning.

I’m sitting in the steam with what’s left of us, finishing a beer, and the idea just arrives. Ship some bikes down here. Ride South America. Top to bottom.

My planning brain took over within hours. Google Maps. 5,904 miles. 200 miles a day. I even rounded it down to 5,000 to make it easier to sell to Betty.

But the idea itself didn’t come from the planning brain. It came from somewhere else. Something that doesn’t need a spreadsheet to know it’s on.

That’s what this song is about.

Chapter 2 of Honest Miles drops Sunday Morning.