Travel Impulses

I traveled north this weekend. I used to state that  I was heading “back home”. But the outer reaches of Pittsburgh proper is no longer home to me. My home is where “the Rev” sits on any particular day. We are children of the wind and sun now, calling no specific place our origin. I flew this time, to revel in the retirement party of a friend and neighbor. But it was more than that. I travel to change myself – to trust bright impulse, with the hope of receiving the gift of the sublime, life-changing encounter somewhere on the road. The guest of honor was surprised beyond belief. Donna’s children, along with husband Neil, were able to pull off a Copperfield – like stunt, deft of hand, without her knowledge. We befriended Donna and Neil when we moved into our last stix and brix abode some eight years ago. We meet by accident, our lives touched briefly, fragilely — and then we continue on our own private journeys. It is always good to visit western Pennsylvania, despite the damp and dreary cover of clouds. Seasonal Affective Disorder was invented here. Full sun days are a stranger to its inhabitants. But it does provide the opportunity to reminisce with my younger sibling sister and trade travel stories with friends from the ‘hood’.  But it’s even more than that. The encounters transcend time and space and the ethereal visions conjure up talk of ‘back in the day’. There is no voyage without a spiritual, even religious impulse.