Before we stepped off the edge of the world-as-we-knew-it, and into full-time-road-life, one of our favorite activities was the PHOTO DRIVE.
So, what is a PHOTO DRIVE, you ask?
- Set out from home in one particular direction
- Drive until we see something interesting
- Take a picture
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until hungry
- Eat (meal of mostly fat and regret)
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 until tired
- Return to step 1
It only makes sense that, once we broke free of our stationary “home” point, we would continue the practice. Andrew’s a photographer, after all. The only difference now is that our “home” starting point is anywhere we park The Enterprise.
Two doors. I love this photo. If we weed out all the extraneous misdirection we try to throw, for whatever reason, in front of our path, we are left with two doors at every moment in out lives – YES or NO. We could also say those doors are LOVE or FEAR (all hate is only fear). Or maybe it’s IN or OUT. Or FIGHT or FLIGHT.
If we strip away all the clouds, and take only a single moment at a time, we are binary creatures. Allowing ourselves to see that binary is the real challenge.
In our very brief time on the road I have experienced the dying breaths of the “we” that we were. For some that may be the fading outlines of the last time they thought America was “great.” For others it might be the reminder of when “we” did not, and could not, include “us.”
For me it’s the last step before the next – the one that we need to remember should we happen to fall back and need a firm step from which to start again. The notes of our past still faintly cry out for help across the slowly dying countryside of America.
We are but sick children looking for someone to help us make our choice.
Text/Images ©Andrew Auten, ©Christine Auten, ©Story and Picture, ©Worst and First – All Rights Reserved