It’s the “here and now” thing again….except from childhood, before we had to try so hard to “be there.”
Summer of 68’, kids like him wore shorts, PF Flyers, striped colored t-shirts, crew-cut hair, and big smiles. Never remember any vacations, other than cabin camping at a “local” lake, seemingly way off in the north woods. And then of course the summer vacation that wasn’t, when the old man told us we would attend all the museums over the three warm months, but really didn’t.
But when that large RV pulled into the driveway, he knew this was special. Every now and then, the alpha came through in a big way. Unfortunately, he only really remembers one thing about that travel experience. Certainly, but yet faintly, he remembers the civil war fields, and statues, and listening inattentively to a tour guide. But that is not what resonates when he thinks of that early road trip.
Back in the driveway. That’s where the trip was occurring for him. Because he then first felt that strange sensation that occurs when you prepare for leaving….nothing else seems to matter. Once he had his pillow and little suitcase stowed, he sort of “dissed” his little neighbor friends. Who needs em? He gone! That feeling has never left him. The idea of going on the road erases all trivial concerns and allows one to have a “tabula rosa”…or blank slate.
This “here and now” concept, written or implied in every self-helpless book around, first surfaced for him in that driveway. That RV was never as fun during the actual trip, as it was in those first few hours in the driveway. Alone, still chewing and swallowing his dinner from the kitchen table, he slipped out into the RV to punish that steering wheel with his dreams. Tightening his eyes, he could see prairies and ranges, cowboys and Indians, of which either came from a past life, or perhaps from a television show.
What occurs “now” is real……what is anticipated….. rarely matches up.
