Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Hah! See what I did there? Pretty smooth eh? Yes, you too can make up words at your whim! Truth of the matter is that I'm now 2 times zones over, and I didn't sleep too well last night. That and a hot shower will do a number on your brain's capacity to think and/or stay awake. That, and my brain is tired from doing so much exercise today.
The bulk of the day was spent driving in fairly featureless terrain, except for the first couple of hours. Beautiful! Driving East on I-80, I was up a little bit before the sun, so I got to see it rise. Just east of Rawlins is Elk Mountain. From far away it kinda looks like a shield volcano, a cross section of Kileaua, if you will. To the south of this shadowy pre-dawn blob is another hill. The best way I can think to describe it is as a horizontal lower-case “l” with the serifs (pointy bits on the ends). A shaft of sunrise light was shooting exactly between the two points on the end of the crater, looking like a brilliant beam of light shooting up across the remnants of the previous storm's clouds. Great start, no?
As a part of the vague and yet to be defined “make my life a better work of art” project, I decided to spend the day flexing my gratitude muscles. I chose today, because holy cats, it can be a long drive! Especially when you can hit cruise control and, well, cruise. From about 40 minutes west of Cheyenne to about Iowa, there is no need to shift up or down, barring the occasional construction zone with markedly lower speed limits. I started with being grateful for the most immediate things. Heat in the truck (it was cold this morning), a truck that works, and so forth. Then suddenly four hours had gone by and I somehow didn't feel like so much time had passed. So I stopped and had coffee and ice cream for lunch. Well I had a cheese-stick and a couple of carrots too. This practice of gratitude got be be touch to constantly maintain. The mind wanders. In fact, it wandered right into today's topic of metaphors (spelled correctly here).
I began to think of life like driving a truck. I suppose we could do this with any mode of living, be it trading stocks, pushing a broom, or splicing fiber optic cables on the sea floor. Sitting in my cab, I am in control of my vehicle (my body-mind). I can read the gauges and collect other input from my senses. We all do this. I make decisions based on relevant information, and take in plenty of wonderful, but otherwise irrelevant information. I move through life at a certain speed. In this case, it is dictated by the company, but regardless, it has to be a speed one is comfortable with. You will change your speed based on conditions. Sometimes the road of life is icy and you has to drive with care, usually slower. Other times we can just ride on cruise over a dry road. These times are easy, but don't push you much except in terms of endurance (how long can I put up with this?). Somedays, you'll run across people going slower than you, maybe because they are carrying a heavier load, or just move slower. Both situations are just fine. Some people will blow by, either because they are carrying lighter loads or are burning a lot more fuel (life force) to get some place faster. Maybe there's a balance between the two. Some people are in it for the money, others are in it for the love. I'm in it for myself. To take some time to be alone and reflect on things. When it is all said and done, we are all in it for ourselves, it just depends on how you want to look at things. We can do good for society by helping others make something (delivering raw materials or finished goods to improve a product), or by feeding people. We may bring people inspiration (ever see a little kid get a truck to honk?). Not only that, we are all going at our own pace. You can't push a truck out of your way, although I've seen someone in a car try to do that very thing (hilarious effort in futility). We all drive our own road. Some will be more considerate of others out there, some less. The best we can do is drive safely and with care for those around us, even the trees on the side of the road, since I'm sure they don't care to be driven into.
I'm sure you could dive as deeply into this metaphor as you'd like. The parallels may spin into fractal infinity. I'm done for now. I'd like to play some banjo and do some personal work for the rest of the night. Take care all, and remember to drive with your lights on... especially in the rain.
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