The empty road and a full life

Former Kent resident takes global trip of understanding

Gary Garner says he spent the first part of his life in the pursuit of money and material gain, but he wants to finish life in a much different way.

His new goal is to die homeless and penniless.

The 13-year Kent resident was a successful businessman who owned two consulting companies and a local restaurant until five years ago, when he decided to give it all up in pursuit of adventure and something larger than himself.

“I woke up one morning, and I decided I didn’t want to do that anymore, so I sold everything, and what I couldn’t sell I gave away, and I just left,” Garner said over coffee March 18 at Kent Station.

He is currently back in the state, promoting the book he has created from five years of journal entries, photos and sketches. Called “Through the Eyes of Madness,” the book chronicles his life over the last five years, a life lived completely “outside the box” and mostly outside the U.S.

“I decided I was pretty darn good at making wealthy people wealthier, and I thought there must be a better way to use that skill,” he said.

The idea inspired an international trip that would take him to dozens of countries across all seven continents in search of a way to better the world

and find fulfillment. After selling his businesses and material possessions in 2003, Garner began his journey by buying an around-the-world plane ticket.

He started in Central America and continued country-hopping from there, staying largely with locals as he traveled in order to experience each culture as vividly as possible. His trip took him to places far beyond his initial expectations.

“I nearly died climbing Mount Everest,” he said, listing off a few of his harrowing adventures, which are now chronicled in his book. “I was surrounded by an angry mob in Nepal in the middle of their civil war. I was mugged by some interesting characters in the Costa Rican jungle.”

As he traveled, he said he also learned about the needs of people around the world and started to focus in on what would become his mission — to help feed and educate children on every continent. He said he learned the most from the Maasai, a warrior tribe that resides in East Africa.

He was staying in a Maasai village when he learned that the students in its school were only allowed to do one math problem per day in order to conserve a single piece of chalk, the only one the village had. After asking the village chief’s permission, Garner bought school supplies for the village.

“The Maasai people are some of the most content, happy people I’ve ever seen,” he said. “They literally live in dung huts, but they’re still totally content with their way of life. That really taught me the most about how we aren’t the ones to tell them what they need. We need to be sensitive to the ways we choose to help them and the things we give them.”

That experience and others along his journey inspired him to compile the detailed entries he had kept in his leather-bound journals, his photographs and his unique artwork into a book. He called it “Through the Eyes of Madness,” referring to himself and his seemingly crazy new way of life.

Garner is now using the self-published book to further his cause of worldwide education by marketing the book and artwork from the book and donating the proceeds to various charities around the world. Eventually, he hopes to start his own charity for the cause.

His efforts seem to be getting attention.

“People are going crazy over this whole thing,” Garner said. “Some just love the photography and the artwork, but mostly people are just caught up in the adventure of doing something like this.”

He was recently invited by the Utah-based, non-profit film company New Eye Productions to promote his book and artwork during the company’s “Synchronized Green Initiative” concert during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Ut.

“He is a remarkable individual,” said Lela Newey, co-president of New Eye. “You don’t really find a lot of people who are really living their words and living their dream. Gary seems to be reaching out and really caring about making a difference. And the guy can really get things done.”

Garner said he also attended a pre-Grammy Awards party at the invitation of non-profit record label Oasis Entertainment to help promote his cause, and he has been approached by several other media representatives about doing a variety of projects. A documentary film featuring Garner is currently in the works for PBS, he said, and a Hollywood producer has contacted him about designing a reality TV show around his travels.

His book has been a success so far, he said, and already he has been able to contribute to the education of children on three of the seven continents. The success of the book, he said, is thanks in part to its adventurous story line, its unique artwork and a mysterious, “Da Vinci Code”-like element he incorporated into its pages.

During his travels, he hid what he calls “artifacts” on each of the seven continents. A code hidden throughout his book, when deciphered using the book’s interactive Web site, www.throughtheeyesofmadness.com, leads readers to the clues. Once all the clues are found, Garner said, they will lead to a sort of “buried treasure.”

“I won’t say what the treasure is, but it does have significant monetary value and also something of a more spiritual value,” he said.

As for the future, Garner plans on releasing one book or other similar form of media every three years, continuing to chronicle his international journey, promote his cause and flesh out the code that will lead readers to the “treasure.” He said he doesn’t plan on settling down anytime soon.

“I will never go back to the old way of life,” Garner said. “Being homeless and without possessions has totally changed me, and I think it’s an amazing way to go through life.”

He said he would recommend people try a least a tamer version of what he did, but he doesn’t think a life of wandering is for everyone.

“Most people don’t have the extreme nature that I do,” he said. “But if the average person could go and do this for just six months, they would come back and never be the same.”

For more information about “Through the Eyes of Madness” or to buy the book, visit www.throughtheeyesofmadness.com.

Contact Daniel Mooney at 253-437-6012 or dmooney@reporternewspapers.com.