Zen and the Art of Speedskating

Someday, internet access from airplanes will be as commonplace as cel phones are now… then one will be able to blog successfully & email from 33,000 feet…. there is an airline testing service in flights from Japan to the US, but its still in its infancy… Someday bandwith will flow like airline pretzels, as the urge to always be in touch becomes consuming (that will strengthen the backlash to it as well) as the urge to never leave a moment unfilled with some gadget completely triumphs…

So I am just doing the best I can right now, and writing on Microsoft word…. I am flying home after my trip to salt lake.. it was really a very successful trip.. my wife had some great interviews, and has narrowed her job search down to a few vet clinics in salt lake… And I did get to meet with my 2 coaches, and get instructions on what they want me to be doing for the next 2 months until I move to Salt Lake proper (more on that later, once I start the brutal jump program they outlined…)

I am feeling better about moving now, being honest about how I feel has been important in sorting the bizarre mechanisms of my heart out.. My wife clearly outlined to me all the things that will capture my heart about Salt Lake, and in her exact analysis she is right, and she predicts that I will love it in the end as much as I did Colorado, my friend Carla commented on my last post, and really hit the nail on the head about why I was freaking out about moving.

Also I stayed in Salt lake with some dear friends, their hospitality and nutritious spirit and household was what I needed (Thanks K & B & D!! you guys are the best). A hotel would have left me feeling even more adrift…

Maybe a hurricane in the heart is normal and necessary before a move of 2,500 miles!!… Especially when you move for a reason that really speaks to your self-conception or development… The Romans had an interesting theory that I have always enjoyed, they believed that when a person travels on the horizontal plane, they also travel equally far on a spiritual plane. And when one has truly traveled far, you become wiser for it (this is also why you don’t mess with travelers, they are worthy of a spiritual respect, besides they might be a god in disguise!).

I am sure that our modern methods of movement make the travel equation different that what the Romans were talking about. Sitting in my airplane seat, I am traveling at 565mph, without expending a shred of effort. I would have certainly traveled farther on my spiritual axis if I had ridden my bicycle from Salt Lake all the way back to New York, or done the Forrest Gump cross country jog. That motion of the soul is probably more dependent on the time and effort of rhythmic travel than on pure mileage. But even with modern travel velocities. I have now been on the road for almost 2 weeks, and I cannot wait for my own bed (and high speed connection, I am such a bandwidth whore!).

Filed under: on the road