My life long friend, Bill, has recommended a fav book of his: "Blue Highways", by William Least Heat-Moon. In it, Moon writes, "Since leaving home, I felt for the first time at rest. Sitting full in the moment, I practiced the god-awful difficulty of just paying attention. ...[a man's] observations and curiosity, they make and remake him." As I wait for the restful feeling to come, I keep soaking things in.
Saturday nights have always had their very own energy. My sister and her family had gone to a Quinceañera, a big 15th birthday bash for a relative of her husband's Tex-Mex family. I wasn't up to a crowd, no matter how welcoming they were, so I stayed behind. After dark, I took the dogs on a long walk enjoying the summer breeze and the gorgeous full moon. It gets incredibly hot here in Texas during the day, and I could feel the heat still radiating from the road and sidewalks, releasing as it went the recognizably pungent scent of tar from the pavement. The other aromas of this early summer evening included dinners cooking; laundry being dried in a dryer; the clean odor of freshly mown grass; and the ever present smokey odor of barbecue grills being stoked up. The sounds of were plentiful as well. The crazy birds (mockingbirds?) they have here were chirping and flying around even after the sun set. Voices wafted on the air in those gentle tones neighbor's reserve for quiet summer evenings when things are calm. Tunes and television shows could be heard from different houses along the way.
Then, as I rounded a corner, I started feeling the beat. The beat of someone's car stereo system at max bass, volume and power. Someone's date had arrived to pick her up. His car looked like something off Second Life (SL) or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"! The shiny, special order hubcaps kept spinning and sparkling in the light of the street lamps as well as the neon blue lights the young man had mounted on the bottom of the four sides of his car. Serving to illuminate the path to the vehicle as well as announce to the free world that "This is MY car!!". The license tag was trimmed in blue lights as well, only these circled around the tag in a never ending swirl. My dogs were suspicious of this sight. I can only imagine that it must have seemed like an alien spaceship to them. I smiled all the way back to my sister's house in spite of it all.
Next Monday can almost not come soon enough! That is the day I have picked to begin the next leg of this walk about of mine (from "Crocodile Dundee".) Family is great, the nephews and nieces (phews) have all grown tremendously in this past year. Yet my frustration mounts daily. We are so very different, my sisters and I. I believe children need schedules, routines and an idea of what their day will be like. My sister practices another way of living: always keep them guessing! You can tell my upbringing was influenced more by our regimented grandmother than our bohemian mother. Nuff said.
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