“They always say time changes things, but you
actually have to change them yourself.”
- Andy Warhol:
The Philosophy
of Andy Warhol
For me, there is nothing like the excitement of change.
For most, it creates anxiety and discomfort…the unknown
generating a specter of fear and doubt.
“Stay right where you are,” the voice says. “This is what you know and understand. Why rock the boat?”
On the other hand, change, like gravity is one of the great
constants of the universe. Without it
there can be no growth. Think about your
shoes. No, not the ones you are wearing…the
shoes you wore as a child and how as your feet grew, they got uncomfortably
tight. Had you not changed to a larger
size, the pain would have gone from mild discomfort to crippling and ultimately
completely immobilizing agony. In fact,
it is impossible, on life’s journey, not to rock the boat, nor experience the
discomfort of change.
Okay, change makes me uncomfortable too, but end results, in
my experience, have created a most exciting and meaningful life.
From San Diego to
home…
The ‘final drive’ to Tucson went without incident. We ‘wagon trained’ on Interstate 8 – referred
to simply as ‘the 8’ – with Molly and Sarah in the lead car whilst Leah, Hannah
and I brought up the rear.
It’s in the
neighborhood of six hours from San Diego to Tucson passing through the most
diverse country, from sea level at the departure point, climbing to an
elevation of nearly 4,200 feet (1,280m) over the Laguna Mountains and into the Colorado
desert. Along the way, there are
sections in the mountains where the ground is covered with large rocks that
look as though someone had taken handful after handful of boulders and simply
tossed them along the landscape.
The
giant that did this, however, must have been HUGE because these ‘stones’ range
in size from very big to enormous. It is
hard to describe how astounding they appear as one drives along the highway.
San Diego County is so wide from the ocean to eastern border
that it is more than 60 miles before one enters Imperial County. Here one descends to the desert floor, where
in places, it is at sea level once again, and in the summers can reach
temperatures in excess of 110 degrees (43C)…much different than the yearly average
temperatures of San Diego in the 70s (20sC) a few dozen miles (km) to its west. The desert here has a sandy base, but filled
with scrub brush that makes it look from car level like a small forest of
miniature bushy trees.
Once through the mountains, once by El Centro – 50 feet
(15m) below sea level – before driving through an area of sand dunes I so often
associated with the desert growing up as a child. These dunes are in California, a few miles
before the city of Yuma, just across the Arizona border.
At certain times of the year they are covered
with people who bring their dune buggies to race, ride, climb and basically
savor the thrill of filling every nook and cranny and crevasse of their bodies
with gritty, fine grain sand! (“Yeah, I
don’t get it either," he said parenthetically)
Yuma is next and not quite the halfway point in the
drive. It is, however, a great place to
take a break, fill the cars with gas and grab a quick bite of lunch.
After Yuma one more small mountain range is crossed before
descending to Dome Valley filled with electricity generating wind mills and the final desert drive passed
Gila (pronounced ‘hee-la) Bend. 
As ‘the 8’
gets closer to merging with ‘the 10’ into Tucson, the character of the desert shifts
as the famous Saguaro Cactus (pronounced ‘swar-oh’) begin to appear along the
landscape of the road. They have a
solitary majesty about them, and are protected by State law from destroying
them.The drivers…
The excitement grew by the mile as we realized we were
getting closer to our new home. From the
junction of ‘the 10,’ it is but a short 45-minute drive to North Laughing
Coyote Way – yes that is the name of our street! 
In the morning, at exactly the appointed time, the van
showed up with all of our things and for several hours Molly became the ‘air
traffic controller’ pointing here and there for furniture and sealed box
distribution. The garage, relatively
empty when the movers appeared, filled with astonishing speed – these guys had apparently
done this before! Four hours later the job was done, the movers hopped back in the cab of their truck and just that quickly we were left alone with some 9,960 pounds (4,500 kilos) of transported items which over the next few months will find their way into their appropriate places as the Coyotes find things to laugh about!
We now find ourselves in a new home in a new city with new
things to explore and new people to meet.
In truth, we have no idea what lies ahead. There are, of course, some projects we have brought with us and continue to cultivate, but on balance the “…paper is blank…” The good news is that we do well with this sort of thing. In many ways we are a little Zen about the circumstance, meaning we will let come to us whatever is presented and deal with it as it appears. The scripture actually says it a little better: “Take no thought for the morrow, for the evil of the day is sufficient thereof,” meaning work to stay in the challenges and opportunities of the moment, for they will keep you busy enough. Tomorrow? Well, that might be a whole other kettle of fish…
Oh yeah, change…
The thing about change and forward movement is that the
‘job’ is actually never done. Each task
accomplished provides the occasion for another circumstance to be
explored. Graduation from high school wasn’t
the end, but only provided a ticket for the next life event (e.g. college or a
job). Succeeding in that next task,
whatever it might have been, qualified us for the next opportunity…and the
next…and the next, and so it goes. Of
course, once qualified, we have to make the decision whether to open the new
door that is presented to us – this is the challenge isn’t it?
A wise teacher once shared with me that ‘staying in neutral’
was key in life. Neutral meaning, not
leaning too heavily into something from which you cannot withdraw. Neutral in this context meant balance…to be
able to absorb and move with whatever comes and from whatever direction it may
do so.
It may seem to be an oxymoron, but balance and change permit
life to expand…I’m pretty interested in that!!
- ted
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