The Unfinished Journey/ Wally Bornmann/ July 22, 2026
I first got to thinking about superpowers when I was a kid watching George Reeves portray Superman.
I so wanted to have X-ray vision for reasons that should be obvious when we’re talking about boys entering that time when their voices change.
My second “I wish I had” was to be able to fly, fly far and free, and see things like how Walt had done building Disneyland — I had no illusions of ever getting there any other way.
(Spoiler Alert — I still haven’t been there and doubt I ever will.)
Not sure why I’m thinking about all of that just now other than because I’ve been thinking about how I’ve been a wanderer — not physically but in my thoughts for sure.
There’s a guy who knows me just a bit who went to calling me Wandering Wally after we’d spent some time together. I rather like it.
The thing is, I have to say I admire the heck out of folks who can focus on something with laser-like intensity. I can’t think of a time when I ever was that focused. Hell, these days if I suddenly found myself focused like that I’m pretty sure my kids would start worrying about me. Truth is I’d start worrying about me, too.
No, laser-like focus ain’t me.
Oh, I can get hooked on this, that, or something else every now and again but it never lasts. Sooner rather than later you can take it to the bank that I’m going to wander off to something else that catches my eye. The results of my fascination, much like my laundry, will be lying in a pile in some corner or on my computer.
I can’t begin to list all the things that have caught my eye over the years from religion to quantum physics to buying guitars and beyond.
(Sidenote here — I’m not convinced that religion and quantum physics aren’t two sides of the same coin.)
So, here I sit, Wandering Wally at your service.
****
There was a time I thought about buying an old school bus, getting a dog, tuning up my guitar, and wandering across the country.
I never did.
Instead, I did what I thought I was supposed to do.
Today I look back and say that was one of those “Which fork do I take?” moments that show up in one’s life. Of course, not being much of a deep thinker I didn’t stop to realize I had options having just left the Navy and returning to civilian life.
Press me on it today and I can’t tell you whether I made the right decision for myself or not.
Fearing this will sound over-the-top egotistical I think I did the right thing for others through the years, but I’ll always wonder if I did for myself. (Someday I could see myself thinking and writing on that very subject.)
The thing is, I took the trail I took. Even when I told myself I was on track for this or that, I never stayed there very long. Shame on me because I knew it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I was wandering and wondering about another something.
It’s never been that nothing ever grabbed hold of me and tried to hold on. More than once something has wrapped its arms around me and I told myself that was my something.
You want proof?
I had a couple of things that I’d call true loves in my life. One of them was photography.
The part of the world I grew up in wasn’t what anyone would consider the mecca of artistic achievement, at least not from what I was exposed to. Sure, there was an art teacher that brought pictures of the old masters to my grade school classroom, but they never connected with me.
It wasn’t until I started looking at pictures in Life, National Geographic, and other photo-heavy magazines that something about photography began to catch my attention. Years later photography would become a true passion of mine.
Music found me early in my life. In high school I found comfort in singing and playing my tenor saxophone.
For those few years, pretty girls, playing basketball, playing that sax, and singing were who I was and what I was about.
I’ll always believe that music could have been my life.
The thing is, no one ever talked about what I could do with my music after I walked out those high school doors. Oh, sure, I knew there were people that sang or played instruments and made a living at it, but I didn’t have the first idea how to get out those high school doors to some stage somewhere. So, singing would become private for years and that tenor saxophone would never be played again.
When I think about it, when I walked out of the doors of that high school for the last time, that’s when the wandering got kicked into high gear. I didn’t have a clue as to where I was going and I saw no path to walk.
Looking back, I think not knowing put me on the trail I’ve spent my life walking.
****
WARNING – Never walk into a military recruitment office unsure of where you want your journey to take you.
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A kid from a very small town in Wisconsin can be amazed by most anything.
Anything that floated on the water, was over sixteen feet long, wasn’t made out of wood or fiberglass, and had a 5-horse Johnson outboard motor attached to it was a most impressive something.
Welcome to Wandering Wally and the Navy.
I ended up in the Navy because I had no idea what other options I had.
I’d gone to college because I didn’t have a clue, and no, the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse doesn’t remember me — I bailed before the end of my first semester.
One thing led to another, and yes I will write about all of that, but for now here I am in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean following Hurricane Camille into the North Atlantic and thinking I ain’t never seen nothin’ like this. Forty-plus-foot waves have that effect on a flatlander.
“Ain’t no one gonna believe this,” I tell myself.
I realize I want to show someone, my folks were pretty much my go-to audience, what I was experiencing so I figured I’d buy a camera so I could take some pictures and send them home.
My first camera was a Kodak Instamatic camera bought at the ship’s store.
There are all sorts of firsts in a person’s life that people do, and sometimes don’t, talk about. One of the firsts I’ll talk about is the first photographs I got back from that Kodak Instamatic camera.
I swear I still remember standing outside the ship’s post office, tearing open the envelope with the pictures I’d taken, and being completely immersed in what I was seeing. To this day the image of two destroyers in the distance remains a photo I clearly see in my mind’s eye.
Anyone today, I’d include myself, would have looked at that photo and at best asked, “What’s the big deal?” For me, in that moment, I might as well have just put the finishing touches on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling.
The physical evidence of that first photograph is long gone but what it created inside of me lingers to this day.
Because of that photo I’d go on to find myself taking photographs of the newest Soviet Union missile destroyer in its fleet. There I was on my captain’s barge in the middle of the Mediterranean with the crew of that ship holding rifles and machine guns at the ready.
Thing is, I only had my Pentax Spotmatic 35mm camera with a 400mm lens to point back at them.
I’d be thought of as the ship’s photographer though I’m not sure it ever showed up in my service records.
That’s when I knew that all I ever wanted in my life was to be a professional photographer.
Thing was, thing is, I never had a clue as to how someone goes about doing that.
The day would come when I was in college studying to become a photojournalist when, much like the music, there came a day when circumstances beyond my control took me away from what I was focusing on.
I told myself I was doing the right thing leaving my dream behind and trying to become a husband and father-to-be that would provide for my family.
In the end, the path I chose damn near killed me and yes that’s another story for another day.
I had a direction, a focus, and then because things happen the path one thinks they’re walking becomes the one they never will walk.
And so the wandering would begin again and never truly end.
****
I’ve spent my life trying to figure out my life — the who and why of me.
It’s not talked about much, but I suspect I’m not alone in feeling the things I feel, thinking the things I think, and wondering, “What if?”
There’s a mixture of gratefulness for the life I’ve gotten to experience up to this point and admittedly a regret for a life I imagine I might have chosen instead. I doubt I’m unique though I can only speak for myself.
Had I walked out of those high school doors believing I knew where I was headed, what path I would walk, I wonder if I would have ever bought a Kodak Instamatic camera and found the love for photography that I hold to this day.
Had I walked out of Brooklyn Naval Shipyard with discharge papers in hand, bought an old school bus, got a dog, tuned up my guitar and started driving what path might have presented itself?
Admittedly there were times when regret snuck in and the longing for an old school bus, a dog, and a tuned guitar were a part of it. The imagined picture I come up with would suit Wandering Wally well.
The thing is that Wandering Wally found himself wandering only in his thoughts. Anyone who wants to find him can.
These days I hide in plain sight if anyone is interested in finding me.
These days I do my best to live honestly with the mystery.
Until next time, keep your Unfinished Journey unforgettable.
Happy Trails
The Unfinished Journey 