We made it home. I’m sitting on the deck in 90-degree heat worrying that the 103 degrees we drove through in Nebraska might be on its way here. Uh-oh.
At any rate, a few random thoughts while driving across the West.
If God appeared to Abraham today with the intent of wowing him over the numbers of his progeny, would he say, “Your descendants shall be as numerous as the trucks on I-80”?
Is the car bearing the sign “Wide Load Ahead” driving directly behind a truck bearing, well, a wide load, truly necessary?
What’s up with the miles and miles of wind farms in ostensibly conservative states? I’m looking at you Nebraska and Kansas. Are you cheatin’ on Big Oil?!
I wondered about all those “Deer Crossing Next Five Miles” signs. [Or elk, bighorn sheep, even cows.] Despite carefully studying dozens of such signs, I never figured out what there was at the end of the five miles that ensured that deer would no longer cross. Do we have a deal with the deer that I don’t know about? Are juvenile delinquent deer out there going, Hey I’m at 51/2 miles, look at me cross?
We passed a billboard reading “Where are you going? Heaven or Hell? For truth call …” And therein lies the problem. By the time you’ve read the billboard, pondered your eternal destiny, decided that perhaps a smidgeon of truth couldn’t hurt, you’re miles past the billboard. Now what was that number?!
And, further delaying my response, my first reaction was “Why only two options?” It seemed to indicate a lack of imagination. Then I remembered that Catholics don’t stop at two. They’ve got Purgatory. Which made me remember that Mormons also have a number of choices, as do Jehovah’s Witnesses. Before I even began to ponder choices offered by my Protestant friends, I had to decide if I preferred to go with the religion with the best imagination. Which, you have to admit, kind of brings Mormonism into play. Hence, yet again, miles away before I needed that phone number.
So perhaps a follow-up billboard several miles down the road. “Have you decided? For truth call…”
But then I saw three billboards in a row depicting a smiling Jesus on one side and zombies on the other, with text like “Wouldn’t you prefer to be living?” and “Escape with Jesus” and “Have you chosen yet?” Which made me wonder if three such billboards are really better than two? Or would even one be enough to get the message across? If one Jesus vs zombies doesn’t lead me to repentance, what hope is there, really, for my soul?
One final observation. Kamala and Tim are correct. It’s possible to just be neighbors. It’s possible to be neighborly. I did not meet a single person on our travels whose political identity I knew. And yet every single one was neighborly. [Well, except for the stoned dude in the tea shop. But even he was nice. Just too nice.]
People gave us directions. In a Nebraska sports bar, we had delightful arguments about college football. Nebraska fans tended to admit “we suck,” but they have hope for the future. And they hate my Buckeyes. Taos Farmers’ Market was stuffed with nice folks. And amazing chiles! Waiters and waitresses gave honest advice and even remembered us if we came back. Everyone was a neighbor.
Not knowing if someone might be a Trumper, I had no opportunity to ponder deficits in character and judgment. Not knowing I was a Democrat, they had no opportunity to wonder why I was a communist or which demons might be in control of my soul.
I remember a time when political affiliation was not top of mind for most folks. We really didn’t care. I’m not sure we can ever get back to that. We’d perhaps need a monolithic all-powerful enemy like the old Soviet Union. That might unite us. We’d need religion and politics to get a divorce. When the other side was just Americans with odd or unlikely or even poor ideas, that was still better than the other side being evil. And we’d need to return to a time when political parties offered real politicians as their standard bearers.
I doubt we can get back there, but I miss those times. It’s fun to inhabit that world on a drive across the country now and again…