Lunch Money
8/24/2003
My Best Friends Wedding
I've been stalling posting this story because I have not been able to organize my thoughts enough to tell about Don and Carols' wedding. And, as I was talking to AJ last night I realized I would not ever be able to tell the story the way I wanted to.Don is my longest and bestest friend and one of the things I love about him is the ecclectic and interesting people that surround him. They were all there on June 21st and it was beautiful. But the most beautiful thing to me was the affirmation we, Don and Carols friends, were able to give them by just being there for their wedding. It is not often in life that we are able to experience how our existence affects others. So often it is only after we have lost a friend or loved one that we realize how precious they are to us. I once heard a story about a missionary who was working in Africa. A small boy he had befriended brought him a gift one day and when he opened it, he realized that the boy had had to travel many days just to get such a thing. The missionary thanked the boy profusly but went on to say what a chore it must have been to travel such a distance for the gift. The boy smiled and said "I know and the trip is part of the gift".
The "Happy Couple": http://www.jngm.net/pix/LunchMoney/DandC.jpg
8/03/2003
Road Trip/ My Best Friends Wedding
Thanks to AJ (daughter aka webmonkey) for the new Lunchmoney look. I know the look is right because there is a picture of Hop-a-long Cassidy in it and God knows anything affiliated with "Hoppy" just has to be good!My best friend Donald had made the decision to marry the girl of his college dreams. He had loved her from afar through his college years, and after many years and different marriages for both of them the circumstances arose for them to get back together, and Donald did not hesitate to pursue Carol. A respectable courtship, then reasonable period of cohabitation and on June 21st, "My Best Friends Wedding".
The event was to occur in Santa Fe New Mexico which is no short hop from Concrete Washington. However, soon after receiving the invitation, I made the commitment to go. Exactly how I was going to make the trip had not been decided. But, I would be there.
I have always had a yearning for the road and have come to learn that the road trips I have taken have always been much more that just "puttin on miles". In 1985 I took my wife and daughter on a 3 1/2 month odyssey that covered 25 states and three providences of Canada. A one ton truck, a small fifth wheel trailer and the three of us. I had cashed in everything and we were heading out to see the country. Shades of "Lost in America" the Albert Brooks movie of similar theme, however we started out before the movie was released so take that Hollywood. In my youth I had done a trek with across the old Route 66 from Santa Paula CA to Edina Minn. The stories on that trip could fill another page so I’ll save them for another time. Also, throughout my life have been a series of small personal road trips some of which included my youngest daughter AJ (see above reference ). The point I’m trying to get to is that for me, road trips have held a magical / mystical quality that have almost always lead to something more than just the trip itself. For me, such a trip is a way of cleaning the spiritual windows or airing out the dusty corners of my soul. Literature is full of similar themes and I am not trying to compete with Jack Kerouac here but, my road trips tend to help me better understand me, by seeing how much there is out there that does not have to do with me. So, with all that in mind I decided to avoid the airport and shuttle buses and the swiftness and drive the 1602 miles to Donald’s wedding.
So what is it about driving east through Idaho and Montana that allows me to clear the clutter of the ever day, work a-day, relationship a-day, money a-day, aging a-day world and find inner peace or as Chuck C. says in his book " A new Pair of Glasses" see the world in an entirely different way, like a new pair of glasses, seeing it clearly. Is it starch heavy meals in the small town diners that I always choose for food. Or the beautiful averageness of the people I see in towns like St Regis Idaho, or Montecello Utah, or the marvelous panoramic views of lakes and mountains viewed from I-90 while passing though Cour de Lain. I don’t know where the magic lies, maybe in all of this. But I do know the magic happens and the clutter goes away and I begin just for a little while to better see me and where I may fit in this thing I call life. And for me, it is a wonderful experience. And so it was traveling east then south to New Mexico.
Peacefully exciting.
Next to come, "My Best Friends Wedding"
