Sorta Songlines

I love you baby, but you gotta understand

When the Lord made me

He made a Ramblin' Man.

Some folks might say that I'm no good

That I wouldn't settle down if I could

But when that open road starts to callin' me

There's somethin' o'er the hill that I gotta see

Sometimes it's hard but you gotta understand

When the Lord made me, He made a Ramblin' Man.

~ Hank Williams Sr.

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole long day? From morn to night, my friend. - Christina Rossetti

When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there. - Japanese proverb

There is no happiness for the man who does not travel. Living in the society of men, the best man becomes a sinner. Therefore, wander. - Aitareya Brahmana

O Public Road You express me better than I can express myself. You shall be more to me than my poem. - Walt Whitman

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them determined by the will-whatever we may think. - Lawrence Durrell

A child on a farm sees a plane fly by overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse and dreams of home. - Carl Burns

Some days, all travelling is, is staring out a bug-smeared, rain-soaked windshield at the back of a semi. - Ryan Short

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. - Susan Heller

Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. - Anatole France

It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to. - J.R.R. Tolkien

One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. - Henry Miller

When you're traveling, you are what you are right there and then. People don't have your past to hold against you. No yesterdays on the road. - William Least Heat Moon

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. - Lao Tzu

Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. - The Dhammapada

I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move. - Robert Louis Stevenson

Tuesday, October 17

Brattleboro, VT

Some days you eat the road, some days the road eats you.

One of you commented earlier that they thought the point of this trip was to stop and smell the roses. Actually, there is no point to this trip, not in that sense anyway. A point is too close to a goal or an objective which implies the possibility of failure. This was successful the moment I pointed the car away from my apartment and pushed the pedal on the right. One thing about road trips is you can’t fight them. Each one takes on a spirit of it’s own and you must allow it to breathe a little. If you try to force it to be something, if you try to direct it, you kill it a little bit.

Every true journey is an interior journey. The physical travel is almost incidental. It’s only when you escape your surroundings that you see things clearly.

2 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Dude that was your dog that asked if you were going to smell the roses. I'm surprized she didn't ask if you were going to stop and spray the roses. Anyway tell Ender I said hi next time you see her. Safe trasveling.; 11:47 AM
Ryan said...: Oh yeah, you're right. I think Ender is just a little jealous she's not on this trip with me.; 10:59 AM