SOTW 3: Take the Long Way Home — Supertramp (1979)

This song operates on two levels, according to Roger Hodgson, who wrote it:

The first: a man who takes the long way home because going home means facing something he’s not ready for. “And then your wife seem to think you’re part of the furniture...” then “...a catastrophe.”

The second: finding the place inside yourself where you actually feel at home. Rolling from “Why should you care, if you’re feeling good?” to “Does it feel that your life’s become a catastrophe? Oh, it has to be for you to grow, boy.”

For me, it’s both. For many years, I was looking for ways to avoid finding home within myself. Taking the long way, avoiding addressing important things.

The LatAm was the epitome of the long way home. Plan a 12,000-mile motorcycle trip, isolate myself in the comfort of my helmet, plan, lead, plow ahead. The long way home in a literal sense.

But it was the long way home that led me to the second level of the song. It took me 12,000 miles to recognize that my life had become a catastrophe. And that is exactly when I started to grow.

I will be forever grateful to my wife, who stuck with me through the catastrophe. I love you, Betty.

Chapter 3 of Honest Miles drops on Sunday.