driving into beauty and music.

i'm here...finally. l.a. is wonderful so far (it's my first full day here, so what else can I say?). i got in much later than expected last night at midnight and i'm doing well although my little honda friend is a bit sick from the few-day trip. i'll be taking him in to see dr. mechanic sometime soon b/c he had one too many temperatures on the highway while we were driving. it scared me a bit, and every time i saw the temp. rise and almost enter the red zone, i would panic and want to just pull over and let him cool down a bit. oh well. hopefully he'll be doing better soon. if you want to hear the full story, you'll have to speak with me in person. there were other things that went wrong too. oh, brother!

anyways, driving across the country is something every person needs to do at least once. especially those die-hard, pro-squared, go-go American nuts who clapped in their easy chair at home every time a medal was won a few weeks ago. my advice to you all: how can you love your country so much if you haven't seen more than two states of it? eek...i think there was a bit of really bad english in that sentence, but maybe that fits the question and to whom it was directed at. anyways, people need to see the country on the road. i wish sometimes that planes hadn't been invented b/c then, people would be forced into land travel. i also wish that people would cut the "you drove all that way by yourself?" questioning toward me out. yes, i drove all that. no, actually, it wasn't bad, i loved almost ever minute of it (except for the mintues honda was hurting---see comments above). i loved being alone and the feeling of not being alone that came with being surrounded by creation. i loved picturing and imagining what it must have been like to be on those horses riding out west to search for land, gold, or something more. i loved seeing the sun set behind a mountain right in front of me. there were many other things, but these were a few. i listened to books on tape one day and to music the next. both were enjoyable but with music, it was weird to see how much it dictated my mood. i was listening to one of shorb's cds (can't remember the artist) at one point and while the music was so beautiful and i kept one song on repeat for about 30 minutes, i couldn't help but notice how sad i was. the song seemed to open this up in me and while i'm not blaming the song, i am saying that music has much more power than we give it credit. every since mid-july, i've been thinking about listening and hearing and how maybe, losing the ability to hear would in fact be worse than being blind (i used to think the opposite). on days like last night, i think it would be worse b/c nothing in my life seems to give me as much inner buzz as the sound of a really good song, waiting to be heard.

"My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary." -Martin Luther