“That night I didn’t see him leave. He got away without making a sound. When I managed to catch up with him, he was walking fast, with determination. All he said was ‘Ah, you’re here.’ And he took my hand.”
~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
Inspiration veered off in many directions throughout my trip; Where’d You Go? is my attempt to catch up.
Ring, ring. Hello. Who is this? You want to what?! Eat at me from the inside while scratching away at the sanity that’s disintegrating beneath me? I’ll have to call you back; I have the credit card company on the other line, and they’re threatening the same thing. Who has the last word.
What is it about a kaleidoscope that inspires creativity? Every view opens the door to new possibilities, ordinary objects take on exotic shapes, and colors converge in harmony...beauty spirals in all directions as light illuminates the imagination. This expansive, mystical experience is really no miracle at all, though; rather, it's a matter of perspective thanks to mirror assembly and positioning. Is a kaleidoscopic view possible at all times, then, if we tinker a bit? Who takes a look.
"You just have to go with the flow," replied Mark, the hot air balloon operator/tour guide, after I asked him for any words of wisdom as a result of his 30+ years of experience piloting these majestic aircraft. It's so much easier when you're hovering above the mountain peaks...or maybe that's the key for total liftoff. Who is full of hot air.
"Earworms" (a.k.a., songs that get stuck in a person's head) are caused by a phenomenon called "involuntary musical imagery." According to psychologists, the frequency of earworms "depended upon the thickness of several brain regions," but does that mean it's better to be thickheaded? Or does thick-headedness welcome more earworm invasions? Who inches toward an answer.
It seems I missed the sprawling shoreline, the dinosaur bones, and the various components of the state meal as I drove through Oklahoma, but I did find unearth a key to my mental clarity while on the move. Sooner or later, Who yields to being OK.
I thought following the yellow brick road to an oasis would be a lot easier. Though my walk through the Ozarks wasn't derailed by apple-throwing trees, flying monkeys, or a jaded witch, the path to the wizard, or rather the waterfall, was not filled with munchkins or Technicolor either. Who is off!
You may recall, early on in my unspinning, I explored my fear of the dark as it relates to the monstrous cIown wreaking havoc in my subconscious. At that point, I was still in recovery mode, with city lights and neighbors abound. Would the clown pop up again as the shadows of the wild set in? Who is in the dark.
Before the No Service trip, I had only camped twice...in suburban backyards. Similarly, my Jeep hadn’t ventured far beyond the paved path. I'm not sure which of us was racing to catch up more, but the grand outdoors had us swerving to survive. Who takes the wheel(s).