Camping with Vagabonds

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.

The Streetlamp Anthem

I lay here in my bed, having just waken up from a sweaty, heat-induced nap, and I stare outside at the bittersweet street light parade around this bustling Walmart parking lot. The sky is enchanted, with shades of red, purple, and blue filling my eyes and silhouetting the distant mountains and closer skyscrapers of downtown Denver. I ponder my own future, my own ideas of goals and aspirations, and the horizon seems so distant, yet so tempting and enticing.

I don't know with any certainty how much longer these BattleWagon Chronicles will be my exploration of the human condition. There will be a time, I know, where the Chronicles will simply be a report of an adventure, a report written by a man who is tired, lonely, and deciding to make moves in the direction of a career. But, this time will not be today, nor will it be tomorrow. This writer will keep writing, keep living, keep going as best he can.  This is the life I've chosen for now, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Makins of a Beautiful Day

Today, I've volunteered (again) to help some people move. It's a good thing, I think, but before I get caught up in all that, I'm taking a second (and a picture) to remind myself and everyone else that it's going to be a beautiful day. I'm excited to get some stuff done and then get to where I'm housesitting and do some laundry. Good times!

More Cowbell

Nothing too major to report today. Just more climbing. Today's route: a single pitch off-width 5.6 called "Duh Dihedral". Here, my friend Ryan leads the route with poise and grace. It was a very tough 5.6, with nice laybacks and a very deep crack throughout to keep your neck hairs standing.

Good morning.

Cozy in the Rain

This afternoon, we got a pretty pleasant storm here in Denver. It's been a constant happening, the afternoon thunderstorms that have always threatened us Coloradans but in recent years, haven't quite delivered. I don't know how much precipitation it adds up to, but it feels pretty damn nice. It gives me a chance to catch up on my reading and. Writing.

America

I saw this statue the other day. Lady Liberty had in her arms a fallen Spartan, a representation of all of the warriors who had fought and died for this country.

I tend not to get very patriotic about such things, and -I imagine that this blog entry won't seem very patriotic to most people. However, some of you, I hope, will get it, and to those, I write.

The look of her face was akin to a mother looking over her wounded child. To speak in metaphor, in our current political and economical environment, I don't believe that it's a look of sadness in regards to us being hurt. I think it would be more accurate as a look of disappointment in all of the mistakes we have made as a country.

We stand divided, plagued by many issues. Yes, no nation is perfect, and even the smallest communities have discord about how to manage themselves. But we, as Americans, have gotten so far off track with what was originally hoped for us.

As we approach the two hundred and thirty-ninth anniversary of our independence from Great Britain, we seem to be twice that far removed from the true ideas of patriotism, the ideas of challenging your government for what you believe to be right, of seeking information and taking an active role in our government, even if it's as little an effort as making informed decisions in voting.

To put it plainly, we've gotten lazy. We're drinking the Kool-Aid. We aren't working hard for what we have had given to us. We are complacent, enjoying all of the good things we have now without acknowledging the fights and struggles and work that went into it. We are spoiled children, given all of the best toys and refusing to work until absolutely necessary, and even then, with minimal effort.

Sorry to seem like I'm on the offensive, but I had a thought that needed to be put into writing. I hope you are able to take some motivation from these words. Rebel, not against the government, but FOR the government. It's time to step up.

Sun Sets on a Weekend

As I left Salida and FIBArk and friends and family on Sunday evening, I was captivated by the sunset, so much so that I had to stop and snap a quick picture. One of the things I revisit in my head often is that the end isn't so often a bad thing. You can take that as you may, but I feel like the appropriate analogy is a sunset. When you see a spectacular sunset such as this, even though it's a metaphor for the end of the sunshine and illumination, it's an ending that holds itself in a certain amount of grace. To not acknowledge this is to do a disservice to the inherent beauty of the bigger picture.  The sun may be setting here, but it's already dark in other places. Those who are in the darkness likely remember a sunset, but are in command of their own lives, their own realities.

I believe I had a point, and I think in my philosophical rant, I lost that point. Sigh... the sun set on my thought process. It was a wonderfully long weekend.