There is something large and yellow and pointed at Dandrige, Tennessee in our driveway this morning. Already loaded up with the Modular Units (Rubbermaid Roughtotes, god bless ’em), a Gator, household furnishings and various pieces of California Coastal Redwood that never imagined the journey it is about to take.
My navigator is all jazzed up to be blasting across the American frontier with her dad. Donna, having done her part of packing returns the favor of staying the hell out of her way is working logistics while I work loading.
For many of our friends and family the idea of moving at all – much less thousands of miles – is so out of context that they are functionally unable to see the thrill of the journey. But life is in all ways a journey, without any destinations fixed to bedrock however we might like to delude ourselves to the contrary.
Life, politics, society, language, culture, knowledge. Their beginnings are forever behind us and their end is not our goal. A bad stretch of highway (Oklahoma) or a patch of desolation (Amarillo, TX) no more define the journey than an unhappy moment with your partner defines your relationship. A moment or an epoch in politics no more defines our culture than our adolescent summers define our lives.
Bring the future, embrace the past. Revel in the flow, learn to surf the changing landscape and always, always, love your radar.
Roxy and I will post updates and pics as the miles roll by. The truck leaves the gate early Thursday, July 19th, California Time.
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