I’m throwing this on paper now because I will surely forget in a week when I go back to humanity. There are lessons to be learned from a journey to a foreign land though. What they are is harder to dissect. You must have a keen mind for finding the flaws of your every day life that pop up in the unusual areas of our nation. Such as lacking patience. As I rolled across York PA I learned distances are farther in a place of rolling hills and windy roads.
There is nothing quite like a coming thunderstorm I find this especially true over farm country. Something about not being to run to cover it is you and your small farm house and the land verse the storms of fury that god throws at you. You learn quickly that you are nothing compared to the open land and harsh weather of the rust belt. I wish I was more but I am not, just simply another man running from the storm.
The east coasts non sequitur is humidity. It saves the pauses between states. It drenches the body and drains the mind. You are always swimming in the east. Looking for the nearest air flow. Without it life here is unbearable I much prefer the dry heat. The kind of heat that burns your skin and dries your mouth. However, the east is where the breeze is. The land of the cool summers breeze, the hills cradle breath of some forlorn sole lost in his own mind. Amplify it to the point of pure relief and deliver it to the people.
If you are wondering what this bullshit is you’ve caught me. I have learned nothing from this journey across America. Nothing is a strong word though, I have learned something but have no desire to strike from the record that I learned nothing. I have learned it is pointless to look for the point. If you search for some elusive something, you will never find it. No matter how hard you look. You must let the lessons come to you. I have learned this over the past month though. Most humans are not good. They may have good qualities but we as a species are just bad people. We are self-centered and lack perspective outside our own.
Example the compounds across the country side draped with the confederate flag. That’s in southern PA, where the Union was a mainstay, imagine the rest of the country. Lost people living in the past. Then in contrast the ghettos of York PA which shootings now happen nightly and where young black boys off parole kill police officers, a 16 year old to be exact. Then the world wonders why racism is a problem. Small minded people see examples of what they believe, and the beliefs are reinforced and the belief now reinforced in my head is that racism is alive and well in America.
Also alive and well is the drug epidemic. The opioid problem is magnified here. Crack, Heroin, Pills all readily available and in public view in the streets. The poor taking advantage of the poor for there own gain. I know nothing of this though. Just a lost opinion. In a sea of opinions that will not solve a problem. So it is not worth discussing here.
Personally, I have learned that people grow. Change, and perceptions of past are better understood in the future. When you live far from any family as I do you often miss the resemblances but when you spend time around other family you see your own traits good and bad in other members of the clan. I have learned that people are not forgiving, nor are they understanding. This essay is pointless and depressing so I feel this is where it ends. Nothing I say in this is wisdom. Nor a lesson. Just words from a lost young man in need of a flight home and perhaps a return to reality.