The trek to Ohio was quite easy and largely uneventful. The highlight was stopping in Waynesboro, VA at the self serve Dunkin Donuts where you can get fresh off the farm breakfast sandwiches! I must confess that the excitement of arriving at Ox-Bow was overshadowed by the anticipation of arriving in Columbus. It was good to see many of my friends and seeing some of their children wasn’t so bad. You might call me “Kid Awkward.” I think that Jennida weathered the storm quite well. It’s always hard to meet a big group of someone else’s friends, especially when there is catching up to do. During our stay we did happen upon “Bacon Camp” at the North Market. Apparently everything bacon was the agenda. As an aside I also got to taste several faithful yet extravagant flavors of ice cream, chief among them was corn and red raspberry relish.
After our rest we headed out across Ohio, into Indiana and on into Michigan. The most remarkable thing about our drive was that it lacked the usual “get there as soon as humanly possible” credo. We arrived with plenty of time and in the process got to travel some of Ohio’s better-known back roads. The sky was the star of the trip and it reminded me of several conversations I have had with friends from Kansas about the sense of space that the Midwest imparts on the psyche. The idea that the horizon is where the sky meets the land, not the tops of buildings or tree. There is recognition of scale that is different for the body against the backdrop of a large city.
The drive to Ox-Bow also brought up many conversations about art and our own need to make art. The feelings and senses that have remained where all else has receded, that it is what seems the most important above all else. We being of a similar age have found ourselves here after so many years, seemingly unable to “get it right.” Unable to find that "perfect fit" within that "perfect job." Knowing full well that a J.O.B. is just what we will always have to have, but that art is the goal, the thing that gives the paycheck meaning. It has become time to embrace that. It has been a hard thing to understand myself, much less explain it to others. Part of this blog is my attempt not only to provide a semi-sensical explanation but also to share the part of me that is so hard to explain in everyday words and sentences. I will endeavor to provide photos; clips and sounds of our ongoing trek though the next seven months as we go from State to state and country to country until it finally brings us home...
Home, such a complex concept for ones such as we.
No comments:
Post a Comment