A Good Road Trip Always Makes Life Better

I don't mind driving long distances. I actually like the experience of a long drive.
It allows me to think in peace, even with passengers in the car. There's something about the motion, I suppose. All of my best ideas have come to me while moving. And my whole life I've been a believer in the agito ergo sum adage i.e.: I move therefore I am.

The most recent trip however really opened my eyes to something. And that something is the ability to let things come to us. This way of thinking is foreign to someone who is wired for action and is generally a Type A. But I suppose, you live and you learn.

I got to spend time with someone that used to mean a lot to me a decade ago. The fast pace of life had sort of put a distance between us, both concretely and metaphorically. And when we decided to meet up for dinner, we were both sort of blown away by how naturally we came back to where we last left off. We even managed to reconstruct the last conversation we had in person, almost verbatim it felt like.

Time, I suppose, is indeed a human construct.

So, what I'm saying is, if you have people in your life that have truly left a mark on you, really get you, and from whom you learn a lot, make it a point to let yourself be impacted and guided by them.

Quality influences are not in high quantity in life. And when we're fortunate to get them in the first place, we need to make it a point to allow ourselves to let them come back to us.

I'm demonstrably better as a result of making time to connect with my special friend. We're both better as a result, I'm told. And life is too short to be deprived of the needed influence of quality people.

So, here's to fun, long road trips, the opportunity to think and reflect for a while, and the delectable dinner shared between special friends who share a great history. After all, and when dealing with true friendship, time never dilutes it. If anything, it makes it better!

So, cheers!

"Bonneville" and the West

You can't really explain the West to those who have not experienced it. The West cannot be captured by language. It's simply too vast and larger-than-life.
I was recently surprised by a good film. It's called Bonneville and it's brilliantly shot. I felt the director actually 'got' the pace of the West and what it means to face the vastness of the landscape. So, next time someone asks me what the West is like, I will recommend that they see this film.

Well, this and the end of Matador. Its end credits do justice to Colorado, I find. But that's another post.

I have been lucky to have driven the same areas featured in Bonneville. I find that one doesn't really get to appreciate places like Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and California if one hasn't actually experienced them on the road. And this film is a respectful homage to the gift that is the nature out West.

The film starts in Idaho with the main characters embarking on a long road trip. They start by going South in the direction of Salt Lake City at which point they decide to head south to California. The characters stop at places like Lake Powell, go boating in its shallow waters, get unstuck and then unstuck, and consequently reach Las Vegas. The characters' final destination is California which the film captures nicely as well.

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