Uncategorized 
No Comments Not Convenient
My beloved wife and I traveled by car to our daughter’s place in Missouri. We left our car there and flew home. I’ll have to admit that I enjoyed the long road trip more than I thought I would. It was a little getaway, a relaxed trip where the journey was as important as the destination. For me, it was a reminder of what we have lost a little at a time on the road to enlightenment.
Back in the seventies, I went to California to see my future bride. Driving straight thru was how I did things back then but I stopped in a little hamlet along the way for a piece of pie. The memory of that little stop has stuck with me. Of course, another “pie” memory of recent times will stick with me too. My son and I went out for a piece of pie. Asking the young waitress for pie and coffee brought a response I wasn’t prepared for. “What’s pie” she asked. I’ll have to admit I’d never been asked that question before. I vaguely tried to explain it but to no avail. I thought defining pie would be easy but in a world where the word woman can’t be defined, pie is just one of the first casualties of the young mind.
Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, Springfield, one can’t help but notice the further east you go people get nicer, even charming, something that made me think, I could live here, a kind of country safeness that put me at ease. We were away from the rattling of the rattlers, a step back to a place and lifestyle that the rest of America on the coast have discarded in favor of social justice.
Heading out to her small farm from Springfield entailed two hours of driving on winding roads. I thought, why would anyone live here? It’s convenient to nothing. A little town or two but nothing big-city living gives us. And I probably would have opted to live a little closer to town, more explicitly a city, you know Costco and stuff.
After three weeks I could feel the everyday contentment that rural life brings. They didn’t move there for convenience. There’s much expense to living in God’s country. Gainsville is just seven miles, it has a grocery store and just enough other things to keep you going. But earning a living out there is hampered by long commutes which is doubly compounded by high fuel prices. Not convenient, nope it’s not convenient but then the better things in life never are.
Rural living is a lot of work. Land requires labor, something city folks don’t have an affinity for. But then much of what we spend our time and energy on just fades away in the country. Even the church feels like sixty years ago when people reverenced God, loved family, and have been humbled and satisfied by a powerful God.
Back in Phoenix, I appreciate the pleasures and convenience of living here. Shopping everywhere, no snow, lots of sun, what’s not to like? But maybe it’s time to stray off the well-traveled road while traveling is still an option.