In Skinny Legs and All, Boomer decked out an old Airstream trailer to look like a big basted turkey and took his new bride for a ride. But their road trip wasn’t the most interesting one in the book. The most interesting road trip was the one taken by the objects they left behind, whose drive and focus was to get themselves first to New York City and then to the holy land.

Led by a sacred conch shell and a magical painted stick, the can of beans, spoon and sock make very slow, microscopic movements, while Boomer and Ellen Cherry speed through their lives both together and apart. In this culture of instant gratification, I am inspired by these characters who take this long, hard road and persevere.

I think about my own job and how I am mostly satisfied that things are getting better every day, even though it’s all too often slower than anyone would like. If I had more time, if I had more resources, if I had fewer demands, then things could go much, much faster. But these are the limitations I live with and must accept, and knowing that the pursuit of my goal is unswerving, I am happy with the seemingly microscopic movements, and I can see the progress and feel its silvery glow.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 24th, 2010 at 11:02 am and is filed under road tripping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.