Today I parked myself in a familiar place. I noticed at least five semis, three with loads, two without, all waiting until they can get back on the road. I wonder about that life, if it's fulfilling to be a loner. I wonder if the scenery one gets travelling the endless highways in the expansive United States, if that really outweighs the silence and lack of companionship. I wonder if that's as romantic as people make it, or it it's as lonely as everyone else think it is.
At this big box store, I see a family loading up their old Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's not your traditional family. There's a mother, about my mom's age from what I can see. She has two daughters, younger than I, both with a baby of their own. I wonder who's at home waiting for them or at work providing for them. Maybe they provide for themselves. Maybe they don't. Who knows? It's just an interesting observation. Maybe it's a broader view of our society wrapped in a bittersweet package in the urban US.
Sigh... if there has been anything that this experience has taught me, it is to be thankful for what I have, what I've earned, what I've made out of the opportunities I have. Not everyone sees what's in front of them. Not everyone takes the blind leaps that could turn into decent lives. I see more people than i'd like to confess sleeping in cars, pooling money for groceries, panhandling, drunk, lazy, and not doing what needs to be done, not for the bigger picture, but simply for their own sake. It makes me sad.
I guess in the meantime, I'll stay in my home, my home on wheels, appreciating it for what it is, knowing that it's a choice, not a necessity, and working as hard as I can to better myself for the sake of doing so.
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