Joseph, Oregon Population 1052
In the past weeks, I've found myself equal parts angry/depressed. I've found myself giving my money away to charitable civil-rights-oriented institutions. I've found myself writing letters to my senator like they taught you to do in grade school—but you never, ever thought you'd have to, because you thought that while, sure, there were differences amongst folks' beliefs and experiences, that humans as a whole were generally sane enough to do the right and good thing.
ANYWAY, when it seems like the world has gone bat shit crazy, I would argue that a road trip to a very quiet place in the mountains is just the thing. This is why we journeyed many hours into Eastern Oregon on Friday afternoon, where we found, among the rolling farm lands and rugged cliffs, little cabins strung up with colored lights. We slept deeply, although the puppy was restless, and woke up on Saturday morning to hike up high into the steep hills.
We climbed till our faces and fingers were freezing, and our legs dragged. We didn't talk at all, just listened to the wild wind in the trees. Gusts of cold air, well they can scrape your mind clean, can't they? Hours later, dog tired and hungry, we loaded the pup in the truck and drove into town in search of warmth. The streets were quiet—not dead, just peaceful, and we wandered into a wood-fire pizza joint to thaw ourselves with the heat from the oven, with the pizza, with the pints of beer. Outside the window, swirls of snow rolled like tumbleweeds down the street, as the darkness of a late-November afternoon descended, and I'm not overstating this when I say that it was quite possibly the coziest couple hours I've ever spent in my life.
The world, yes, it's crazy. Scary, even! But mark my words, turn off your phone/Facebook. Get away! Navigate on nothing but intuition for a while. Move yer feet, meditate. You see new stuff. You drive. You eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. You watch the setting sun break though the rain clouds over the open road, and you come home tired, and you are glad. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
