Not the Only One

  I just dropped my son off to summer camp, his fourth year now.  I've been going to this place for one reason or another on a regular basis for most of my life, and know these old roads well.  What always strikes me when I drive up is how lonesome and desolate it seems.  I'm almost always the only car as far as I can see in either direction. Knowing I'm not the only one heading this way, because camp holds a couple hundred kids plus staff, and it starts at the same time for all of us, I wonder why It is that, as usual, I see no other cars as I drive closer and closer to our destination. Not until we turn off the state highway and on to the mile long way that leads to my son's long-awaited week of bliss do I see other cars.

How does this happen?  Is there some kind of magical barrier that keeps each car at just the right gap behind the next so that we "get" the country road feeling as we ride in?  Most of us who've stayed here see it as a magical place... "holy ground", so the thought that we are led quietly to the turn off is not that out-of-place, for this place.

It is peaceful and inviting, especially in summer. Waving overgrowth in a thousand shades of green tickle in the wind as I drive by.  Lone horses, still from summer's heat, stand stoic, poised. Each acre taunts a new landscape fit for framing. I resist the urge to stop and take pictures.  The kid is getting in his last hit of digital addiction before a week of nature by watching "Annoying Orange" YouTube videos on my smart phone.  So, while the scene is lovely, the sound is not. Still, I feel a strong gratitude for this time alone in the country.  I forget how much it means to me to be out here. It is probably the only time I feel safe and alone at the same time. Even though I see no others, I know they are there, sharing this lonesome road - not far ahead and not far behind: a quiet parade of souls in solitude. Even with the annoying orange, I love this.

 

I get to experience a lovely drive alone in the country, and I'm not the only one.