Land of Enchantment

Greetings from the land of enchantment, Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I took a little road trip this weekend just to get away.  I started the five and a half hour drive this morning around 9am and reached this sign about three hours later.  Santa Fe was a 2.5 hour hop, skip and jump beyond. As I was driving, I had a lot of thoughts.

First off, I was thinking about the proverbial journey of life. The literal expedition that I set out on this morning made me think a lot about what is more important; is it the journey, or the destination?  I will guess that many people have different answers to that, but for me, it's definitely the journey.  I'm happy traveling.  I'm happy in a car, driving to a new, unexplored location.  I wonder about the many mysteries that the destination holds and revel in all the goings on of getting there.  As I reflect on other trips of my life, I realize this has always been the case.  For instance... the first time I drove cross country, many of the destinations were quite boring.  Take the drive from the Mall of America to Mount Rushmore.  Leaving Minnesota, we got caught in a torrential rain storm and didn't think we'd make it to Rapid City, SD as we had originally intended. We therefore canceled our hotel room in Rapid City, but chose to keep driving, to get as close to it as we could.  The drive was an experience I will never forget. It was one of the first times I had driven in a rainstorm with rains so thick that I couldn't see the front of the car.  There was raucous laughter when one of my companions had to pee so bad (probably a combination of the rain and me, the driver, refusing to stop in it) that she got out of the car, peed on the side of the road, and got back in soaked to the bone, less than 30 seconds later.  And then, ultimately, we made it to Rapid City and tried to get our hotel room back only to find out that it had been sold to someone else.  The only room available at that late hour was the deluxe love suite of a Raddison several miles back.  It had two floors, a heart shaped hot tub, and an open shower.  It was not cheap. Haha... The next morning, after having gotten plenty of sleep for me, I woke everyone up a 8am and made them drive the rest of the way to see the mountain of Presidents.  When we got there, all we could do was say, "Yup. There it is. Take a picture.  Okay got it. Now what?"  It's not that it was a let down...it was just... not nearly as exciting as our pilgrimage from Minnesota.

Cathedral Basilica of St Francis]

I feel very similarly about Santa Fe.  I visited the Chuck Jones gallery today (which I really liked) as well as a few other galleries, an art show, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, and a creperie. Woo.  On the drive here, I listened to awesome music, thought about many things (including what I'm writing here), planned future adventures (Garden of the Gods, Pikes Peak, Sand Surfing at Sand Dunes National Park), and all in all, felt a joy I haven't felt since departing from CT nine months ago.  Don't get me wrong...I liked all the things I did in Santa Fe today but simply put, it did not elicit the same blissful satisfaction as just getting up and going.  Apparently, I'm the type of person that likes to go just for the sake of going.  Again, I can see how people would like the destinations more...but that's me.  I want to DO things.  I want to GO places. I want to LIVE because living is a thing worth doing.  This is something that I think a lot of people don't get, and furthermore, don't do.  Which leads me to my second point...

I wonder how strange I am for wanting this lifestyle. 

When I was explaining to my coworkers on Friday about how I was driving 5.5 hours just for the sake of doing it, and with no clear motivation for doing so, they looked at me funny.  Honestly, probably rightfully so. Haha. 

On the way down here, I thought about online dating and writing a profile about myself.  It's not that I want to be dating someone (quite the opposite actually) but it seems the natural thing for a man of my age to be doing.  In fact, at 29, some would say that I should probably be in a relatively serious relationship that will ultimately turn into a lifelong commitment to another person.  Is it strange that I have no desire for that, right now? I mean I want to get married some day but right now, i'm more focused on living my life for me and not being saddled with another person, and/or a ton of new responsibilities.  It's kind of selfish, I know...but what's wrong with that?  Who says I can't do things on my own for now?  To them, I say, why not?  As a fully fledged adult, I will do what I like, when I like, with whomever I like.  For better or for worse, right now, I want to do things on my own.  Is that really such a bad thing?  Do I even care if that's such a bad thing? No.

I have lots of friends and a great deal of people that I love, and that love me.  With the comfort of that in mind, I'm going to live my life.

Thanks,

j