Blog o’ Gnosis

(With apologies to Roger Miller.) I have been enjoying myself out on the road this week. There’s been no boxcars or broom pushing involved, but thanks to the largesse of old friends and the interest in dreams and other workshops I give, I’ve been able to partake of early Spring in the Northwest, a rarefied kind of beauty. The cherry and plum blossoms are out in Seattle, there are fresh violets rising from the forest floor in Olympia, and tomorrow I get to see what’s blooming in Portland. Life is good.

I have also made a startling discovery about travel in general: Greyhound has it over flying coach these days. Taking a 90 minute bus ride yesterday, I discovered that I had more legroom, enjoyed better air quality, could bring a water bottle with me from outside the station, and didn’t have to wear a seatbelt the whole time. Plus, if we crashed I would be falling from a height of roughly ten feet instead of 40,000, and would likely survive.

Aside from the singular advantage of speed, airplanes are no longer a more pleasant way to travel. At the Oakland airport the security personnel told me I had to put my small shampoo bottle in a ziplock bag if I wanted to bring it with me. Then they informed me that they had no ziplock bags, but that I could buy one at the gift shop in the next terminal over, a ten minute walk.

The whole premise of restricting liquids in carry-on luggage for security reasons is ludicrous in the first place, as is the practice of removing our shoes, to which we are now inured. But as I stood looking at the security guy smiling as he told me my options I realized that this was just the tip of the iceberg. We are being trained to accept life in a police state, thanks to the Orwellian vision of Homeland Security. I have often denigrated coach flights as being “the Greyhound of the skies”, but I never dreamed that I’d actually prefer the bus. Amazing!

Still, there is something heady and delightful about travelling. I tell people to pay particular attention to dreams while travelling, because they often include a unique birds-eye view of our lives back home, sort of like looking back at the Earth from space. Things fall into perspective from far away, and if we’re lucky we can resume our work with renewed energy and focus when we return.

I remember once about ten years ago, Starhawk and I were teaching together or protesting somewhere and I was talking about how much I loved travelling. She said to me, “Well, good. I think you should write about it, describing at great length everything you love about travelling. Don’t leave out a single detail. That way, when you’ve travelled as much as I have and are completely sick of it, you’ll be able to look back and remember fondly the days when it all seemed so fresh and exciting.”

Happily I am not yet sick of it, though I do understand what Star was talking about. I am midway through my trip, catching up with good friends and meeting new and interesting folks along the way. It is Spring all around, and even the rain seems to carry clarity and the promise of great things to come. This weekend I get to meet two brand new babies, visit my son Bowen, and have more fascinating conversations with other Pagans. In spite of everything, life is very, very good.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 9th, 2007 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Dreams, General, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.