Highway 68. Taos, New Mexico
We seduce ourselves. We think we’ll always have tomorrow. That we’ll always be young. That there are always more pressing matters to attend to. We trick ourselves. We believe that ‘now’ won’t work. We can’t spare the time…now. Or the money…now. So we defer. We postpone. The personal passion will have to wait ‘til another day. I’ve done it ten thousand times. And will probably do it ten thousand more. But not right now. Not this time around.
I’m on the road. A full-fledged road trip around the U.S.. Photographing. Exploring. Thinking. Seeking adventures and experiences. New faces and places. I get to be a photographer every day for four months. It gets no better than that. It’ll be more gritty than glamorous. More sweaty than swanky. With less sleep rather than more. Time will be punctuated by thousands of split-second clicks of the camera…and thousands of miles on the open road.
I’m eight weeks in. I’ve traveled down the East Coast. Across the Southern states. Lingered in the Southwest. I’m now headed north along the West Coast. I’ll immerse myself in the Pacific Northwest. And then make my way east via the Rockies and the Plains. If you sketched it on a map, the route would look like a big rectangle around the country.
Four months seems like a luxurious amount of time. And by some definitions it is. But it’ll fly by. And besides, it’s only 0.4% of my life…I think I can spare the time. We live in a beautiful and amazing country. It’s important to take the time to appreciate it; and it's an honor to explore it. Inspiring natural beauty is everywhere. Interesting people around every turn. Unexpected encounters await – moments that affirm life and inspire even more exploration. I am convinced that exploration and discovery is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Seeing new things…and seeing things in new ways.
I don’t know when my number will come up. Not for many years, I hope. But guaranteed, it’ll be before I’m ready. Life is fleeting. Best to soak it up while you can.
More to come…