Across The Face of America

Gary and I have just returned from a three week drive across the face of America. You could call it a Vision Quest.

The original impetus was to attend my nephew’s 21st birthday party on the east coast. We expanded it into a driving adventure, stopping to visit relatives and old friends and old places. We wanted to reconnect with significant pieces of our pasts, learn from them, and let go what needed to be let go of. The scope of this endeavor grew out of control, until we weren’t controlling it any longer. A birthday party trip turned into a vehicle to scrutinize and reassess everything we lived for and everything we planned to live for.

Driving turned out to be the key. Hours and hours in the car left room for long meandering conversations and ruminations that we would never find time for in our busy daily lives. We chewed on tough concepts that we could never fully digest before. I’d doze off and awaken with new insights into something we had been discussing. The hypnotic monotony of endless passing cornfields seemed to induce an altered state, to open up new parts of our subconscious for assessment.

Every day or two we stopped at someone else’s home for a visit. Those interactions would spark new insights into the situation, for us to talk about in the car on the way to the next place. Sometimes billboards espousing some current issue would set off explorations into the nature of existence, and right and wrong. In one area, we saw billboards about the importance of being “Pro Life” and holding all human life as sacred. OK, I also think life is sacred. Alongside were billboards about how important gun ownership is, as well as signs celebrating the war. The juxtaposition seemed so odd… the sacredness of human life seemed limited only to those who haven’t been born yet.

Then we’d need a break from all the heavy discussions, and start singing along loudly with the music we brought. I had a fine time singing the old Beatles song “Love Me Do” in the style of Louis Armstrong: “Love, love me do…. yesssss” (I guess you had to be there to appreciate it.) Overall, it was fun as well as deep.

I wrote several stories along the way, inspired or mystified by one situation or another. These will be posted within the next few days.

With an e-hug to everyone.

The Willow, temporarily back from wandering
*********