I've often felt, when flying to far-off locales, that I arrived and left bodily before my mind and heart even got there. So I was operating under a kind of out-of-body experience. Yes, I was there. Sort of. But it wasn't until after I got home - and had been home - that I finally felt the experience sink in.
I blamed it on the mode of travel. Air travel gives this illusion that I can, and should, move very fast. Except for the mess TSA has made of airports, the basic idea is that I should be able to pick myself up out of my southern, suburban environs and land in Budapest or Prague or Berlin in about 8 hours .... refreshed from a nice nap on the plane and ready to dive into another culture and all that it offers.
Whoa! I love traveling, and have been luckier than most to have been all over the world. But it never quite worked like that! And, I felt like I was always running to catch up with "everyone else" who was.
Now that we're doing our traveling by car I've felt a little more present in the bodily experience. I actually enjoy the transitions from one place to another. I feel myself moving from one place to another, along a trajectory that is somewhat more logical and do-able. And while I can't always identify what is actually growing in the field outside my window, I do recognize that it is something different from the last place. Or not (I do have to say they grow a freaking LOT of corn in Illinois!).
And yet.
I have been traveling for two weeks now. Awhile back, I left home and went to a conference in Ocala, which is about 3 hours south of where I live. From there (or near there) I took the Auto-Train to Lortin, VA. That was great ... train travel may not be fancy or exotic, but it is fun and it felt very efficient for me to be sleeping all night while my car and I were moved along I-95.
Joe met me at the train station and my car was off-loaded after about 30 minutes. Much quicker than I had thought, and we were on our way. We drove through the Chesapeake area over to Cambridge, MD where we spent an evening with my sister and her husband who recently moved to the area.
And thus began our Summer Trip. A mixture of driving, talking, music, family, walking and sampling small town America. Well, we went from Cambridge to Philadelphia, so it's not all small towns. But we stay off of Interstates for the most part and stop when something interesting or funny or delicious catches our eye.
We're listening to a course from The Teaching Company called "America Before 1776" which has been fascinating and fun.
We've had Maryland Crab Cakes and Philly Cheesesteaks (about which, I learned, you don't use the word Philly). We've seen Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. We ate at one of the best restaurants in our whole lives - The Fountain Room - overlooking Logan Square.
We spent Memorial Day Weekend in the tiny hamlet of Hermitage, PA where we attended a Memorial Mass for Joe's aunt who had passed away in January. They interred her ashes in the same cemetery, and right next to, the plot where his dad is buried. It was quite moving to be among relatives who knew his dad, and who were so grateful to meet Joe ... and could see his dad in him. Sitting under a tent, in the back yard of a small house, sharing home-made food and listening to octogenarians share their memories and tales of the war, life and death has had a profound effect on us both.
Slowing down is good. Good for the soul. Good for the body.
My blog is still about a week behind ... this fast paced world of the Internet is zipping along at lightning speed, connecting me and my kids and friends and continues to provide me the opportunity to know too much about too many things.
After just a week of meandering through the Midwest, visiting with family we don't see very often, and sampling the home-made delights of various good cooks, I feel a palpable relief from the pressures and calls of information, disaster, frenzy and "necessity."
Slowing down feels possible. And, I wonder if by the end of the trip my body, mind, soul and blog will all be in the same place, on the same day.
We'll see.
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