Canmore author Jeremy Kroeker wanted to undergo a challenging experience during a tumultuous period in his life and decided the best choice would entail a motorcycle trip into Iran, with a little hope and a little prayer.
Kroeker ended up fulfilling his challenge and the journey became his second book, entitled Through Dust and Darkness: A Motorcycle Journey of Fear and Faith in the Middle East. In the book, Kroeker takes the reader through Europe and into the Middle East on his trusty Kawasaki, where he must face bureaucracy, questions of faith and perpetual physical pain.
“They look at God through various lenses and everyone is clutching for this certainty in this knowledge they hold and I was just OK with the unknown, I guess, by the end of it all,” Kroeker said towards the religious elements discussed in the book. “When I would talk to people about the trip it was superficial and the travel stories about the places I visited and the people I visited, people I met and things like this. As far as the spiritual journey goes, that kind of unfolded in the year I was writing the book, but I kept that pretty much to myself until putting it out there in book form.
“I thought it was going to be much easier, because I had some experience and learned some lessons writing Motorcycle Therapy (Kroeker’s first book). But as it turned out, I had picked a much larger topic and at times I thought I had bitten off more than I could chew actually – so some parts of the process were easier because I had the confidence knowing that, ‘yes I can write a book, I can finish this project; I just have to go little by little to get this done.’”
Kroeker gets very personal with his upbringing and with questions about his faith throughout the book, and said this was one of the biggest challenges he faced during the writing process. “Going back into my history and the setting I was raised in – that was painful. I had to do some musing about my spirituality. Where am I at and where did I come from? And that was very difficult, and at times it basically brought the whole story to a standstill.”
He said during times of challenge he would step away, or put his energy into a different section of the book. “I would focus on other parts of the project – like if I was struggling with some of the religious questions on my mind that were too painful or difficult for a time, I would focus on the descriptive passages and things that wouldn’t take that much soul searching,” Kroeker said.
“I actually did shelve this project several times in the four years I was writing it and at one point I actually quit writing altogether and told people that it was not going to be a book, it was just going to be a series of short articles I abandoned and put aside for six months.”
The summer of 2008 was when he first put pen to paper. Kroeker figures he spent around 18 months piecing together the rough draft. He received some help from some great editors along the way who helped in cutting and molding the rough draft down to the book’s final copy, which Kroeker said is half the length of the original draft. The timing of Through Dust and Darkness’s release is coinciding with the tumultuous times occurring in some of the countries visited in the book, such as Syria and Iran.
“I was hopeful, because when I was in Syria in 2007 and 2008 you could definitely feel this tension in the air. I’m not saying I could feel any sort of revolution coming, but people were very reluctant to speak about politics and if they did at all – like sometimes I would ask for a bit of insight – it would be met with weary, averted glances and just whispers and things like this.”
Kroeker said he was able to coax one or two people into telling him how afraid they were. “You know if they said something bad about the government, they could disappear without a trace. One taxi driver told me that and I made a joke, an offhanded remark about president Bashar al-Assad at a coffee shop one time and one of the locals just stood up and left,” said Kroeker.
“He didn’t want to be anywhere near me and it wasn’t even a harmful joke, but it was inappropriate to talk about the government. I guess I was hopeful when this happened, because I felt that change needed to come, and it was good that at least it seemed to becoming from within.”
He discusses in the book why it’s still so difficult for Canadians to acquire visas to enter Iran, and how he eventually received his. “The Canadian ambassador is constantly being kicked out, so the best way to do it is to go through a service like I did, but even then there’s no guarantee of success.”
When Kroeker was asked if he would tell other Canadians to visit the country, he didn’t hesitate for a moment. “Absolutely, Iran exceeded my expectations – the people are very hospitable and welcoming. All the things you here about it are true, I guess all the political stuff is below the surface, especially when you travel as a tourist..
“But if you go and you hit Iran and all the tourist hotspots you’ll just have a great time, and you’ll never know there’s underlying political tensions unless you’re caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. And of course near any border it becomes more intense,” Kroeker said.
“This trip I took solo and when you travel alone it forces you to step up and to meet people and in many ways I think the best way to travel is by yourself, because it forces you out of your comfort zone. You have to seek friends and to me that’s a very valuable experience.”
Kroeker took experience and knowledge away from the trip, but still cherishes what he didn’t receive. “Just being OK with the uncertainty, especially when considering the divine. People are afraid of this uncertainty; they want to have the answers and they want to know the answers, but it’s OK if you don’t. I think there would be fewer religious wars if people used language like, ‘I think and believe’ other than ‘I know.’”
The official book launch for Through Dust and Darkness will be held at 7 p.m., Oct. 11, at The Georgetown Inn.
