On the road again

I’m on the road again.

This adventure is bringing me back to the wilds of west Texas. When I say wild, I mean wild. This land is untamed for the most part, and I like it. Every time I have the opportunity to drive through Texas, I jump on it. Something happens within my spirit as I tear down the highways, and this landscape has a particular way of opening something unique in me as I whiz on through it. It’s hard to put into words, but I’ll try: the untamed part of me comes out to shine and witness history as it swooshes on by.

From where I sit here on the wide open road under a massive blue sky, and an atmosphere that hasn’t progressed with the times, it’s easy to get lost in eras gone by. Which is exactly why I love it out here … way out here …. in west Texas where progress hasn’t really progressed except in a way that has left all these small, old towns in the middle of nowhere far, far behind.

It’s a melancholy sort of feeling to drive through the ramshackle towns and see visible signs of demise. Say what you will, and believe what you will, about progress and politics and the digital age. Regardless of your opinion or mine, these towns are dwindling, dying, and their last gasps of breath are happening right before our eyes.

For me, driving through miles and miles of un-progressed wildness with not another human or automobile in sight brings a kind of indefatigable comfort. It’s the sensation of standing completely still watching time march by, except I’m moving so fast that I can’t possibly ever touch time - and time can’t touch me - and that’s the best feeling of all.

There is a certain kind of comfort in the old places, the old things, and the people who lived through it all. And there is the comfort of being so present in the moment that nothing exists, nothing matters, and life is just what it really is:

Aliveness.

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With huge thanks for all the supporters of my organization Stories of War. It is with your support that this documentary walking in the footsteps of veterans in order to honor their story is possible.