Random Musings on Society

I've been reading a lot of news lately, news about health care reform and balloon boys, wars and potential troop deployments, mid-air collisions and innocent, young ladies being traumatized after their high school homecomings. My friends and family are drinking, celebrating, mourning the deployment of their husbands, laughing and crying together, laughing and crying alone.

I think about the things I learned in history class and things I've researched on my own, talking about how we were as a society and culture and as a nation. We used to have block parties and talk to our neighbors. We used to let our kids vanish for hours at a time, to where, God knows, only having faith that they would be home for dinner. We used to care about things that meant something and dismissed trivial things as they are, in fact, trivial.

Now we've shifted. We don't let our kids leave the house. Some of us do, and are branded "bad parents". We don't know our neighbors, and we don't know what's really going on in the news. We do know that Eastasia is at war with Oceania... or, wait... that we are at war with the Taliban and terrorism as a whole. We're at war with an idea. What happened to the guy who sued God in Nebreska? He's crazy! But we're at war with terrorism, and that's accepted. Grab your duct tape and plastic wrap.

I don't have time to mold this into anything cohenent and constructive, so I leave you with this: get involved and care about what you get involved in. Enrich your life and grow with those around you. Love deeply, despire the potential consequences.

Sunset in Tennessee

Yesterday Monkey and I drove from Voldosta Georgiae  to Clarksville Tennessee. We drove through Chatanooga mid-afternoon, and I have to confess that Chatanooga was one of the most beautiful cities I've ever driven through. There were gently rolling hills all around, and trees so densely packed. The river gently wound its way through town.  It was just awesome. If I were to move to the south, Chatanooga would be the place. Wow.

We drove through Nashville and wound up staying in Clarksville. We went to a local watering hole called "The Lodge". You can still smoke inside there! That's crazy! After a few beers, we hit the sack in preparation for our day's goal of St. Louis by lunch and maybe Kansas by sunset.

The Dense Trees of Georgia

Never have I seen forests this thick in my life. We drive for hours, and there are just trees, thick and green on all sides of us. It's no wonder people would run off into the forests and make moonshine stills. It would seem like it would be easy her.

At the same time, it would be a little scary. It makes me feel isolated and scared.

What an adventure so far! Throw in Steak & Shake and Krystal... grub! I can't wait for Imo's pizza and White Castle!!

The U-Haul Chronicles, Volume I

I'm on a Boeing 757 right now, bound for Orlando, Florida, with my good buddy Monkey.  In this cramped and stale space, with a kid behind me kicking my seat, and a weird gentleman next to me who is a little too sweaty for spurring a conversation with, I sit here for three hours wondering if it'll ever be possible to drive the BattleWagon to Florida. It's probably as likely as me writing a short sentence sometime.

The sunrise in Denver was beautiful this morning. I had stopped at the grocery store on my way to Monkey's. I burned down a quick smoke, the last one for a few days in respect of Monkey's strict non-smoking policy. I grabbed some airport-friendly toiletries and a yogurt smoothie, and got to Monkey's with three hours to spare.  We chatted briefly, and I played with his dogs.

We got to the airport in Denver with plenty of time to spare, on a United Airlines plane full of families on their way to worship the capitalist corruptors at Disney and Universal Studios.

Wow, I just looked out the window. I'm flying over the Gulf of Mexico right now. Incredible!

Our mission will take us back accross the States over the next three days, from Orlando to Saint Louis and then onto Denver, with any luck, but Tuesday evening.  More as it comes...

Snow in Denver

I love the snow. It's my favorite weather, especially during the storms where the wind is calm, and the flakes are big and plentiful. I love the storms that drop inches in hours, the ones that bury your car by lunch when you've dug it out by breakfast time.

I was having a conversation with a friend this morning about snow and rain. I prefer the snow, but she prefers the rain. My thought is that when it snows, it feels like God Herself is wrapping me up in a blanket, quieting the world around me, slowing it down, gently nudging people to spend time with friends and loved ones and stop avoiding them.  It's different from the rain, which I feel is how we cleanse ourselves, as if God opens up the heavens and washes our troubles away. I think that's great, too, but there is something very inviting about the snow. Maybe it's just memories and feelings. I remember eating pizza in the dead of winter in an empty house, my mother gone, my dad asleep, and waiting excitedly for a new episode of Deep Space 9. I remember waiting for my son to be able to come home from the hospital. I remember thinking I could have died climbing Mt. Democrat with Ryan... in the end, the snow kept me feeling safe, secure, guarded.  I don't know what it is, but I love it.

Oh, The Hits Keep On Coming

I snagged this shot of a sunset on the state highway that connects Penrose and Colorado Springs a few weeks ago. I thought it was beautiful, and I was thankful for my surroundings, as I was a PASSENGER (yay!) on a road trip back to Salida from my brother's high school football game. It was nice to be idly chatting with my parents and him, crusing through the semi-arid desert that is the Arkansas River Valley and, later, Bighorn Sheep Canyon. (I still refer to it as "The Canyon" and everyone seems to know which one I'm talking about.)

It seems that it's nearly impossible to see a bad sunset. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Oh, that sunset was absolutely dreadful!"? My friend Dan and I have had this conversation a few times where we came to the conclusion that people seem to take things like this for granted. Every once in a while, we need to take time to look, to really see a sunset... or a flower, or the clouds slowly changing shape. Like in the movie "Fearless", we need to stop working when the wind blows and just face it, take it all in.  There are so many sunsets and wooden fences and children playing that we take them for granted, forgetting to acknowledge the ancient mysteries that lay within these moments. These are the moments worth living for. These are the moments that convince us that death isn't really death, it's just a transcendence.

The Band-Aid

I drove the van back to Denver yesterday, and when I got here, I did a patch job, moreso than the wiper a few months back. This is the ultimate. I taped a headlight and a turn signal on the BattleWagon. Excellent!