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Journey - A Road Trip Essay

Us guys like lunch with the boys. And we like to laugh. Men getting together for a meal typically involves food, some hollering, and an overall good time. My crew - we call it Man Lunch.

The idea started during one of those lunch conversations. We were catching up, sharing life, and enjoying a bit of humor. During one of those moments, someone said something about The Boys going on a trip. Bang.

We all thought it was a grand idea. The possibilities were grander. The opportunities before us were insurmountable. For some that turned out to be true.

All of us were down for a Big Trip. Yea, down. We agreed it would be a road trip. You can fly or float quite a few places, but we had an urge for the open road.

But life kept getting in the way. Our splendid possibilities were delayed with the usual stuff of life. Steve-O took a job in another town that takes up all his weekends. We are happy for him. He loves his new life. But that put him out. Other guys eventually said they wanted to do a trip, but it would be a while for a variety of reasons. They all were good reasons. Sometimes you can go and sometimes you can't go. That is just how life works.

But two of us, me and Paul, could go. In fact, we had to go. It was time. When it is time to roll the details come easy. It all fits together. We cobbled an agenda that contained a good plan, but left plenty of time to explore and relax and just be wherever the road led. As the details emerged we gave it a name. On the agreed date we left for the Epic Man Trip.

Epic Man Trip. Road Trip. Pilgrimage. Whatever you name it, why do we feel the call to go wander? Is it we need downtime? Is it in our DNA to go explore? Do we find something new in us when we go look at what happened before?

Carl Jung identified the road trip as a "persistent element of human culture." Some historians say the first recorded road trim was Ramesses II who was noted for taking long chariot rides around Egypt and into the middle east. That was not exactly day tripping more than 1000 years before Christ. Me? I think sometimes we just need to get out there and bump around a little.

We headed out on "Leap Day" 2012. The end of February in The South captures that bite between the end of winter and just where spring is still trying to get its legs moving. Over the next five days we saw some of that which had ended as well as the hope of things new.

Our departure was early morning and we headed out the road packed with cloths, cameras, musical gear, and yes, road music. We turned south. Going Deep South. Day one covered the width of Georgia. Then across Alabama where Paul commented "Alabama makes South Carolina look good" and then on into Mississippi. Our plan was to go down through the hill country in into the delta chasing the blues music trail. Paulie planned on documenting parts of the journey on video and I was happy to note what caught my eye with a camera.

We ended the first day in Starkville, MS where we had Communion Pizza at Dave's Dark Horse Tavern with our friend Bert Montgomery who led us right into an encounter with Johnny Cash (it's true) or at the very least the local legend of Johnny Cash. Later on that evening we managed a few moments jamming to the blues. It was a fitting start to our journey. We had found friends, heard stories, and discovered part of the past in a fresh new way. Already we had begun finding what we needed.

The coming days did not disappoint. We saw the connections that molded slave music into gospel, blues, & country and then eventually rock & roll. Folks continued to tell us their stories of times lost and history redeemed, as well as about the here and now. And in quiet moments the car just hummed along, or we reflected on a porch, or we just stood at the edge of the Delta fields and watched large tractors turning over the spring dirt while we wondered how many men it took to do that by hand in previous times.

Our adventure took us to delta towns like Greenwood, and Sunflower, and Cleveland, and on up HIghway 61 to Clarksdale. We visited Robert Johnson's grave, and The Crossroads of Highway 61 & 49, and Dockery Farms Plantation, and Red's Juke Joint. We ate local, we heard local music and we even lived a bit local by spending a few nights in an old farm shack. By the weekend we rolled to our final stop in Memphis to see Graceland, Sun Studio, The Stax Records Museum, and then that last night down to Beale Street where on that Saturday night more Top 40 bands than blues bands played on stages. Many folks down in Mississippi have found Memphis the headwater to a larger life, but crossing that last river is a world apart.

That final afternoon in Memphis we realized we had seen and heard about as much as we could handle on a short road trip. We made one more brief stop on the way to the our hotel. On April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel at 450 Mulberry Street. At this place hate ended a life, but the national journey towards civil rights did not stop moving forward. On this cool clear afternoon we just stood and looked at that old motel. I'm not sure if either of us said a word. I do remember thinking this place was far more powerful than I imagined.

We fired the engine for home early Sunday morning. A study selection of road tunes poured out of the speakers and we talked about heading home to our wives. The trip had been Epic, but it was time to get on back to our girls. We reminded each other that we are two of the luckiest men on the planet to have these women who love us, tolerate us, and laugh with us.

Both of us agreed that the beginning, middle, and end of every story and every journey has importance. It can be so easy to get distracted or anxious with the process. We become obsessed with the beginning or end and overlook the good parts in between. Perhaps some days it is best to know we are just somewhere between the beginning and the end of the journey and that is good enough. Yes, it is better than good enough with me. A lot of what is best in life can happen when we are satisfied and excited and some days mystified with just being somewhere in the middle of this story called life. That journey ended, but the bigger one continues. What a trip. It was Epic.

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All I'm saying is simply this, that all life is interrelated, that somehow we're caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. You can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality. —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

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On the last day of February 2012 two guys cashed in trip passes with their wives and headed off to the open road to chase the blues trail through rural Mississippi. They found what they were looking for and remembered they had more then they deserved in life and back at home. This is one of their stories.

This pretty much sums up how I spent my Second Grade school year.

But there can be no art without pain. - Tim Joe Comstock

The Trailer Park Cyclist is the best writer that I know. I beg the forgiveness of several writer friends that I have had the opportunity to meet and know. I'm just stating what I know.

So long, Levon Helm. We'll see you in Nazareth.

Forward

For the past five years, maybe more, I have said I am Purple when it comes to politics. Most people know what I mean when make the comment. When exactly did we decide Blue means Democratic Party and Red means Republican Party?

Who decided The Right holds the moral high ground and The Left represents equality and social justice? Moreover, who anointed one side The Right and the other The Left?

Why do some people believe Christians only hang out on The Right? Really? We are saying Christ did not defend the poor and support sexual equality?

When did we decide you had to choose...Had To Choose one over the other? When did we decide we could Demand Rights, but we don't need to be Responsible?

How is the response to The Red or Blue Question with little or no conversation a meter of your level of acceptance with the questioner? WHO decided this should be the question that determines if you are "with them or against them"?

And I just love those questions that are asked only to verify position or designed as a launchpad to lay out personal ideology. Did they even take a moment to figure out what they actually believe and why they believe it? Sigh.

The other day I was reading a book intro which mentioned the political Right and Left. And then the writer commented that Jesus always moved Forward when it came to politics. Bam! Pow! Eureka.

I love how that simple statement resonated. We get so hung up on Right/Left - Red/Blue - Either/Or that we forget Jesus was all about The Third Way. I'd like to do more of that Third Way work this election year and going forward. It will take work, but I'm eager for the effort.

All the recent election rhetoric has made me a little rebellious in answering questions about my position. I have good work to do. It's time to reflect on that third way thing and be more kind & patient in my responses as well as relationships. You can remind me if you see me failing... or flaying someone who asks one of those lame baiting questions.

I noticed another bloggers mention that he loved a recent Rick Warren comment in a ABC News interview. I too, think it is quite solid. Warren said:

“The coarsening of our culture and the loss of civility in our civilization is one of the things that concerns me most about our nation. We don’t know how to disagree without being disagreeable. The fact is, you can — you can walk hand-in-hand without seeing eye-to-eye. And what we need in our country is unity, not uniformity. There are major differences, politically, religiously, economically in our nation. We have many different streams in our nation . . . What is solvable is how we treat each other with our differences . . . In fact, the Bible tells me in I Peter, show respect to everyone, even people I totally disagree with. So I’m coming from that viewpoint in that we must return civility to our civilization in order to get on. But the reason I do that is because of the deeper reason, there’s a spiritual root to my reason for civility.”

Nice, Rick Warren. At least a Bam Pow for you.

So here we go. Onward with living The Third Way.

Fresh Sushi Made Daily @The Piggly Wiggly?

I love The Pig. I really do, but this does not seem quite right. Perhaps The Apocalypse IS upon us.

Friday night. Green Egg Pizza with My Girl. Yeah, Man!

Easter Postscript

Sometimes I find myself thinking that The Good News is much better than we have ever imagined.

Resurrection? Yes.

This is 10 minutes long, but worth the time. Enjoy.