Monday, June 27, 2011

Joy and Peace of the Open Road:
A few days of rest after arriving home.  Beginning to sort and edit photographs made during the ride. Open road feels like a dream brought back with visual images.  I have dreamed every night since returning home I was in the world of the Mother Road. 


Nancy handed me the new Sundance catalog yesterday. I looked puzzled at it. She pointed to a short statement written by Robert Redford. What perfect words for the thoughts in my mind.


"Life. Are we living it or running behind trying to catch it?  What are we observing, smelling, hearing from the life around us? Information-too much of it.  The faster it moves the faster we have to move, but with our minds and fingers. Meanwhile, life goes on around us unobserved, unimportant.


I remember as a child traveling by car from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas.  Camping out along the road at night.  Looking at the stars in fascination.  Aware of the silence, the sheer magnitude of space, then the occasional moan of the coyote, the first distant, then increasing, sound of the truck heaving down the highway-the sound of rubber on road, the whine of the engine, immediate for a moment then moving on, fading into silence again.


I miss that.  I would never instruct, just maybe suggest.  That you might find the sensual joy of the open road, the summer air, the silence, the short term peace.  It is there for all of us, what's left of it, and it's free"...Robert Redford.


The sensual joy and peace of the open road.  It is there and it is free.


be strong, be safe,  Carlan

1 comment:

  1. I am blessed for I have this.
    I can sit out on my deck and look at the stars, listen to the lowing of the cows and hear an occasional coyote call in the distance.
    Thank you for reminding me to slow down to see and hear what I have that so many others do not.

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