Shelter From the Storm

          

I was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail

Poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail

Hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn

“Come in” she said

“I’ll give you shelter from the storm”.

– Bob Dylan

 

 

 

 

“Come in” she said

“I’ll give you shelter from the storm”.

 

And that she did…and more...

 

 

 

 

 

And that she did…and more.  Missing you. Loving You.

 

 

July 29, 2014

 

 

 

 

The Pursuit of Happiness

If you ever travelled to Europe in the summer you might have noticed a foreign attitude among the locals. Well, yes -- this is Europe and it should feel foreign to Americans but there is something else. There is a relaxed attitude. I noticed it most in Italy. When I travel abroad I prefer to spend five or six days in a single place. I'll take day trips but I won't travel around the countryside much. By staying in one spot you get to merge into the rhythm of a place and see how local people spend the day. I was sitting in a piazza in an Umbrian hill town having coffee and a tourist bus full of Americans arrived. They all piled out of the bus and sprinted down the street to eyeball the local church and an eleventh century fountain. They were shepherded by a tour guide who was Italian and may have been the only real connection to the people of Italy for that day. I saw them later racing back to the bus. Some of them has acquired small parcels in the local shops to forever remind them of their trip to the hill towns of Umbria. Those Americans had managed to turn a vacation into work.

There was an odd feeling of freedom in the air in Italy and I've found it in other places as well. A  social or cultural freedom. The day begins and the day ends. If you don't get everything done today then tomorrow is another day. People go home for lunch. It is not uncommon for folks to take a month-long vacation. It is absolutely okay to have a five course meal starting at 9 PM. 

This attitude is almost unknown in the US. I blame the Puritans. We would feel guilty taking a month-long vacation (even if we somehow earned that much time) and our employer and our coworkers would make sure we felt bad about it. The Puritan work ethic is almost a genetic building block of life here in the US. We are expected to feel guilty if we do anything that isn't deemed productive. We must always be busy improving or producing something. That's one reason why there is such a bad attitude toward people who need some form of government assistance. Retirees feel bad about collecting social security because it is sometimes perceived as being on "the dole". Some new retirees have a difficult transition because they feel bad about not working. They make lists of things they need to do and race through the list so they can make another list. I was one of those retirees. I made a list that would take me through the first year. I completed it all in ninety days and then went out and got a part-time job.

I often travel by Amtrak or take long solo road trips. I frequently run into tourists from Europe or, most recently, Australia. The folks on Amtrak are most interesting because it is a slow way to travel and because they interact with other American travelers. When an American asks where they have been or where they are going you can see the shock on their face as the foreign tourist lays out their vacation plan.  One family said they were taking a circle tour of the US by Amtrak starting in Los Angeles and heading to the east coast and then up to Boston and then a side trip to Montreal and then finally back to California.  If you drive interstates 40 or 44 you may encounter Europeans tracing the entire course of Historic Route 66 in rented vans or small campers. Sometimes they rent Harleys and make the trip. Sometimes they are lost and have to ask directions but they are doing it...usually on their own armed with a guidebook. They see more of the country than most Americans ever will. My recently-met Australian went from Australia to Brazil to see the Aussies play in the World Cup and then went on to the US where he was going to spend some time in Las Vegas, where I met him, and then head on to California before going home. The tremendous weight of self-guilt would keep most Americans from enjoying an extended trip. Lots of Americans grudgingly take their vacation time and sit at home because otherwise they might lose the time.

Americans sometimes like to complain and carry on about the socialist tendencies of European societies. Maybe there are some excesses but I can't help but think that we feel a need to pass judgment on those systems for a socialized safety net. It's un-American! Good Heavens...they have socialized medicine!! Poor folks, they must be slackers,  are living off the government or have some kind of tax-based subsidy!! Whatever happened to their devotion to hard work, duty, thrift, self-discipline, and responsibility, we ask. Being judgmental is one of the key components of the Puritan ethic system.  What on earth was Jefferson thinking when he listed "...the pursuit of happiness" as one of our inalienable rights?

Time in a Bottle

Big Horn Mountains 1975

I think everyone has at least one special image or photograph in their head that they pull up into their consciousness and experience it just from memory. Sometimes these may be images that bring back an unpleasant or even horrific experience...an image that they would want to forget if they could.

I hope that most people have another kind of memory image -- one that brings back pleasant remembrances.

In 1973, singer/songwriter Jim Croce was killed in a plane crash at the height of his popularity. He had a huge fan base and several of his songs were released as singles just after his death and became classics of the mid 1970s era.  I was "keeping company" with a young woman who was to become my wife in 1976 and she was a serious Croce fan. She was much more enthusiastic than I was but I enjoyed her enjoying Jim Croce's music because that’s what we did in the 1970s...music was important.

One of those posthumously released songs was "Time in a Bottle". The song was a classic love song of the era. It was probably included in countless weddings.  

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I'd like to do

Is to save every day

Till Eternity passes away

Just to spend them with you

In the summer of 1975 I managed to talk this city girl into going on a backpacking trip to the Wyoming wilderness. This was very uncharacteristic of her and friends and relatives were astounded that she would agree to do something like that.  Going off to the mountains on a field trip with a guide and an organized group would be challenging enough but going off with one other person -- on foot -- was crazy talk.

We had a couple weekend trips to get in shape for the walk and check out our equipment. I had a stove that wanted to blow up in my face each time I turned it on.  We decided to take her car, which had a standard transmission, so I had to learn how to use a clutch. We had to waterproof everything and rub silicone into our hiking boots that weighed a ton. We tested out the freeze-dried turkey tetrazzini and granola bars. We packed and repacked but finally ended up carrying about 110 pounds of stuff in our two backpacks including the tent, sleeping bags, foam mattresses, food, water and that stove.

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I'd save every day like a treasure and then,

Again, I would spend them with you

We scheduled the trip for late July and finally hit the road, camping along the way. We agreed that we would stay in a real hotel with a real bed after we came out of the mountains but would camp as much as possible.  Half the fun of the trip was just getting there. At one point she decided that she wanted to see a buffalo so we were off on a wild buffalo chase in an overloaded Ford Pinto. We found a small herd but almost left the oil pan at the bottom of a ravine in the process.

We said goodbye to civilization, hoisted our packs and staggered around the parking lot for a while until we eventually disappeared into the Big Horn Mountains and Cloud Peak Wilderness. (We heard that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared that day, as well...) 

Turns out that we had a great time. The mosquitos were bigger and the trout were smaller than we expected. We camped on a breezy ridge overlooking a lake and the wind kept the mosquitos away. We didn't get eaten by bears or mountain lions and had only one serious encounter with a Mule deer. We saw only three people the whole time we were on the trail. 

 If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty

Except for the memory

Of how they were answered by you

We came out of the mountains and went on with the trip. We stayed in that hotel. We had a close encounter with a bear at a later campsite. I convinced her to go camping again. We eventually got married and had a wonderful life together for 31 years.

The picture that most often brings this trip to mind is scratched and faded but the memory is bright and clear.

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I've looked around enough to know

That you're the one I want to go

Through time with