Time to Leave

Posted Tue May 4, 2010 in Family

There comes a time to leave — to move on someplace else. Life is motion, either in physical or temporal space. It is the way. Stagnation is a little death and the final place is ultimate stillness. So, it is time for us to move on. The image is one I made at the Arby’s store on Colorado Avenue. I think it represents the duality of life and death; of motion and stillness, as seen through the leaf of a tree.

In this case, we’re heading for home, or at least where home is for now. I loved spending the last couple of days with Older Son and DiL. It’s been months since I saw Older Son and I don’t know how long since we spent time with DiL. I would like another day or so, but their lives move too. We had our weekend, now we move.

I have some work waiting for me. A part of that will be a post mortem of the research work accomplished in Texas. Another part is the final bit on a hydrodynamic modeling project which is due next week. The final push-part is to prepare for my seminar next week. I need a day or so to do that. I’ll work some this weekend.

The next couple of days we will drive. I don’t mind time spent in the car. I love the motion — the passing through and visual stimulation of seeing things not in my normal view. There is a feeling of transition in car-travel I don’t get when traveling by air¹. The transition does something for my thinking. I read somewhere that we achieve a theta-wave state when doing activities like driving. I don’t know whether that is true or not, but I like it. I have things to think about in the long stretches of the western United States and the region is a good place to spend thinking. I supposed a motorcycle ride is in my future (near-term) in which I’ll spend some time riding in the west and some time thinking in the west.

They only thing about driving is I can’t write. Much of my thinking involves writing. Writing is my form of processing, although I spend time talking about things to Wife as well. She is the best foil I could ask for. She knows how to listen.

We’ll be on the road by the time this posts. We have a long climb west from Denver into the Rockies. I think we dodged the spring storm that snarled traffic over the weekend. I’m thankful to God for that. My expectation is that we will land either in Delta, Utah, or Ely, Nevada tonight. It’s a pretty straight shot along IH-70 to U.S. 50 to Carson City. I think the distance is about 1,100 miles, which is two days on the road.

So, now it comes down to it. It’s time to wrap this up, get packed up, and hit the road.

¹ I love the same feeling of traveling by motorcycle — it’s traveling by car with the benefit of being part of the environment.