Back to PA

I find road trips hard to write about. Sometimes I want to be thorough which is boring, sometimes I want to be brief which is a disservice to those I see. I’ve been told by those I’ve traveled with that they enjoy my after the fact retelling and what I found interesting but I find this trying. Whenever there’s a long break from me writing, it coincides with a trip. My most writing streak stuttered in the run up to this trip which, in retrospect, has proven to be another hammer blow in the annealing of my character. This isn’t to imply that the trip was a bad one, but it was a case where I learned something. Usually I learn things but this was a systemic change to how I viewed the world and those moments are rare and precious.  People are rich and deep and should be ends and not means if they are at all important to you.  The ones we love sometimes follow different paths than us but with effort this will result in perspective rather than alienation.

The four of us had a nice lunch before Suzie and I left in the early afternoon.  I dropped Suzie off around 6 despite my best efforts to get there earlier and I drove back to PA listening to the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  Another 1500 miles on my car and another Monday where I will be running on fumes.  If this be the price of friendship, I pay it gladly.