The Jumping-Off Point

Today, we cleared the city of Cleveland to the west and ended a shortish saunter in Rocky River, OH. We also marked our twentieth straight day of slowly sauntering forward.

Bidding Cleveland Farewell

It's a bittersweet departure.  Crossing cities is always a bit of a challenge, but Cleveland treated us well.  From the food to the art to the friendships, the three day crossing proved to be an excellent opportunity for a little recovery while still making forward progress. We crossed paths with a friend and colleague who is travelling their own path, but the time our trails ran in parallel were some of the highest highlights from the last fifty-six days on the road.  We'll miss the banter, and hope we share the trail with you at a not too distant time in the future.

Dad put his skepticism aside for a couple of hours and visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I’m not sure he really enjoyed it, but he reports that it triggered some moments of introspection. I’m not sure Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and introspection have ever been written in the same sentence before, but I, for one, think it’s great.

I experienced my own moment of growth when I put aside my general dislike of seafood and sampled a walleye sandwich. I don’t know what I expected, but I know I didn’t anticipate the emergence of a gustatory delight.  That sucka’ was tasty.

In many ways, leaving Cleveland feels like we've reached the real jumping-off point in our journey.  The expanse of the American West stretches before us, and the vast (relative) emptiness is quite daunting if we think too much about it. Fortunately for us, we've learned quite a few lessons along the way, and we've never been accused of being too very deep, intellectually speaking.  I'm optimistic.

Thanks to all the people who have helped us along the way. The water on the side of the road, a filling meal, a place to stay, words of encouragement, moments of laughter and camaraderie too numerous to count, sage advice on places to go and places to avoid, the offers of rides that we had to reject, and the welcoming porch that kept us dryish during a passing rainshower.  I’m sure I’ve missed many ways that the people we’ve known and the people we’ve met have enriched our travels, and I apologize for the oversights.

Know that we are grateful to you all.  We would not have gotten this far without your generous support and encouragement. Now, on to the west.

Burning the Candle at Both Ends

My temporary uptick in work at my day job is proving to be quite a challenge. One thing I have learned is that the physical fitness I've gained through calisthenics and daily walking if proving to be the pivotal factor in keeping my mind clear and my body cooperating. There's a lesson in fitness in all of this because I started down this daily practice path a little over a year ago, and I did not have to rely on the reserves of body centric strength until the last month or two.  Being prepared has really paid off.

Eight People Preparing Their Physical Beings for the Unknown on the Anacostia

We all walk a path into the unknown, and up till a little over three years ago, I'd been able to mostly rely on youth coupled with a lack of preparation and luck to see me through the scrapes I found along the way. It was an undisciplined approach to life, and proved successful enough that I never really stopped to think about the assumptions of the future that I was foolishly relying upon to keep me on a tenable path.

Fortunately for me, I have faced a series of events that have proven conclusively that I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen around the next bend in my life path. I've been able to deal with that uncertainty by taking action, and that's a relatively new step from my perspective.  In the past, I gave far too much credit to the ability of intellect and thinking to keep things manageable. I've come full circle.  I now believe that action is what allows the intellect to function. With action, my mind has grown clearer and stronger.  It did not wither as I'd assumed in the past. The whole experience has been a period of growth that never would have happened had I not faced what I believed was the end of my rope, the end...doom. That's just a bit too dramatic, but I did get quite a wake-up call through my own ill conceived thinking.

I remain uncertain why I've been allowed to follow this path, but I believe there is a reason that may or may not be revealed.  Until then, I look forward to the challenges that the rising of the sun tomorrow may reveal.

Growing Into Change

Today started off just right with dawn sunrise over the Washington Navy Yard.

Dawn Breaking over the Washington Navy Yard

The workday progressed as these things often do with too many meetings and far too much unnecessary drama, but there were lighthearted moments and quiet times of reflection. We hosted a baby shower for two soon-to-be fathers of daughters (as long as the sonograms are to be believed anyway). I took the well placed critique of the sense of entitlement displayed by many of her co-workers during previous events and stuck around to clean up the food and wash and dry a few dishes. That felt pretty good, and represented one of the more productive things I accomplished in the 10 hours I spent in the office.

After work, I drove to one of the many book donation boxes that I scoped out last Sunday. When I arrived, I executed the seventh day of my initial minimalism experiment.

Robert Heinlein Rainbow - Seven Books Moving on to a New Home (ONe is a Michael Crichton, but who's counting?)

Six weeks ago, I would not have even considered the possibility of divesting myself of the remaining books in the Robert Heinlein section of my library. All of these books, even the Michael Crichton  represent material things that I've kept because they define who I have become over the years. The words these men wrote have shaped the way I view the world, and I suppose it was comforting to have the physical books to remind me of both my past and how I've gotten to this place in time and space.

Today, one week into this minimalism experiment, my reaction to moving on from these relics of an earlier time and place felt completely different. As I placed them into the donation bin, I felt like a small weight had been lifted. Their words, or the ones that have shaped my thinking anyway, are still with me. Though the memories will likely fade over time, the overall rudder that they've given my life will remain as a course correction that pushed me to where I am today. The books are gone, and it's opened up space in my life and on the shelf for a new experience that will shape who I'll become in the future. A week of practice can make a great deal of difference, and today I felt I was growing into change. I'm left to wonder if the lack of momentum I felt several days ago was merely a shifting of course. On a sailboat, a shift of course invariably leads to a loss of momentum, but sometimes, you just have to tack to follow the course to a destination over the horizon.

The day ended with a sunset over College Creek.

Evening Twilight Settles Over College Creek

With the rise and fall of the sun as the bookends to a productive day peppered with progress, I eagerly anticipate what the passage of Sol across the bend of the earth tomorrow will reveal.

Holding Pattern

Every now and then, life develops in such a way that the events seem like I'm in some sort of holding pattern. The last several weeks feel like that sort of cycle. Nothing moves, and the general feel is that tension is slowly building to some new path or direction. The way things are working out is not bad or good, but I want something to break free and identify a particular path forward.

I'm still making progress. Today, I divested myself of five books at a newly opened book store on East Capitol Street between Fifth and Fourth. I passed this place the other day, and they indicated that they purchased books. The lovely young lady manning the register when I came in this afternoon indicated that she wasn't the person who could price books for purchase by the store. I was out for my afternoon walk, so not wanting to carry the books back to my car I left the books with the clerk. She also took my name and my phone number, so I departed the store, relieved of the weight of the five books and my contact information.

Minimalism Donation of Five Books

It turns out that I'm probably not smart enough to work at Google, but it does feel good to create a hole in my bookshelf. This early experiment in minimalism appears to have resulted in gaining a much greater sense of clarity on why I've held onto material things for much longer than they appear to have any use. Two reasons seem to dominate my thinking. The first thing that pops into my head when contemplating what to give up next is that I should hold onto the thing "just in case" I might need it at some imagined time in the future. The prevalence of this thinking surprises me a little. The strength of the argument is not objectively high, but it's a powerful motivator. I believe this says something about the power of imagination for a yet to be experienced future. Thankfully, I've learned to recognize this argument for the balderdash it represents and have developed some level of discipline to counter it.

My ego devises a second, more subtle argument. I've experienced this argument with both books and clothing, so far, but it comes to the forefront with books more strongly. I look at a book, and I remember reading it, experiencing it, and understand how it has impacted my life. The book has become a part of how I define myself, and I find it quite difficult to part with the physical manifestation of how my ego defines who I am in the present and how I became that person. This internal check on my stated desire to simplify creates a higher level of anxiety. On the upside I've found that if I can get past the initial emotional reaction and actually give up that physical manifestation of self, I find a clearer path to thinking about the opportunities that exist going forward. The holes in my bookshelf have cleared my mind to be able to think more deliberately about what should now fill that space. I think the answer is not much, but the great thing about it is that the space is now clear and the opportunities are easier to see.

I wrapped up my walk by visiting my old friend on the Anacostia.

Anacostia Afternoon with USS Barry

If my schedule develops according to plan, I'll sadly miss the last day that the USS Barry spends at her pier in the Anacostia River. The 6th of May should mark the last day when she slips her moorings and begins the long(ish) journey to be recycled. That day, whenever it may actually occur, will mark the end of a three decade era that the ship served as a visible reminder to the residents and visitors to Washington, DC of the history of the Navy in the shaping of the United States. She's become such a part of my walking routine, that her departure will create one of those holes like the ones developing in my bookshelf. I believe I'll be sad to see her go, but sometimes looking forward requires one to remove monuments to the past. 

We'll see what happens tomorrow on my journey of clearing the past to make way for the future. As always, I hope and believe I'll be surprised.