Inspiring others to start all over again
Catching up on the news of people I used to know (the Internet was designed for that, I’ve decided) and I had a vicarious thrill. An old classmate had sold the house, loaded the van and headed off to a new life on the other coast. What a challenge! What fun! And then the memories flooded in. My family did that. Three times.
We moved a lot when I was little. Never spent more than a few seasons in the same place, and then work would intervene. My father was a “railway man”, and at irregular intervals we would empty the house, pack everything into a waiting boxcar and head off. The boxcar would be discovered, on a siding in a new town, and we’d start our search for an identity all over again. What a challenge! What fun! I was a kid; what did I know. Once, I even was allowed to finish the school year early, and I spent a lonely month in a playground waiting for the bell to ring.
So, in learning about a trek by someone else, I understand why the idea seems so gosh darned good. It’s reliving the years when I had special trees, special dogs, and attics that were never completely explored (before we moved on). The next time around, I’ll opt for a brand new house (it is different from a new house, because it comes with that new house smell and an attic with no accumulation). And when the word gets out, I hope that someone else will have a vicarious thrill.
