Driving all night with hands wet on the wheel…..hardly. Try listening to books on tape and hypermiling across the Midwestern farm fields between here and there. But if we are all attempting to be all here and now, where are we when we are between here and there? He pulled over and got out. He walked off away from the centerline and asked “where are you now idiot?”
The illusion is simply that this all makes long term sense as opposed to some short term justification. We satisfy ourselves with a combination of stimulus packages, designed to motivate us up Maslow’s way, leaving the obvious dilemma of the tipping point of the pyramid for later to figure out. Just what self-actually happens when reach it? Slide down the other side, groping for a foot hold to slow the descent, only to find the angle steeper, slipperier, and much faster than our sycophantic climb up.
All this on the side of the road? Yeah, then he stared out at what appeared to be large robots, many of them, moving across the fields in the dark, only tracked by their large red eyes, and the whooshing noises. Field after field in both directions, gigantic wind turbines were wrestling with the night airstream. It is as lonely out here as the stale coffee simmering in the bottom of the pot in a rural gas station. There no escape, and no desire to.
The road detaches us and leaves us with only ourselves to reckon with, a far cry easier actually then steadying the myriad of masks of each day in our more familiar confines. Yet there is perpetual strain associated with the road that continually requires attention to the mechanics of travel and the pondering, wandering mind. In contrast, comfort is sure……sure confusing.
The endless chase continues as you may have guessed……
Please feel free to e-mail a comment to chasingthecenterline@gmail.com
