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Sort of like that scene in 8 1/2
By Russ | June 12, 2009
Things are moving at a fair clip. When I look at the date, I can’t believe that we’re so close to pushing off. It seems that time is moving faster. For me, it’s equal parts excitement and nervousness. I was having dinner the other day with someone and he gave this great metaphor.
He said, “There’s basically two kinds of people on this earth. There are farmers….and there are sailors. Farmers are the people that take great joy in laying down roots and are comforted by the predictable day to day routine and the dependable seasons. Sailors have to be constantly moving and looking for new experiences. There is nothing more satisfying than the prospects of a new port for a sailor. The world needs both kinds.”
I’m not quite sure if I’m either wholly farmer or wholly sailor, but right now at this moment in my life, I have a great desire to explore, to push off from the dock and unfurl the sails. Most of my touring has been in California and it has been amazing. I can’t even fathom what it’s going to be like to tour the rest of North America or South America! It’s just mind boggling.
I’ve been doing a lot of ruminating and it all sort of reminds me of the opening dream sequence in Fellini’s 8 1/2. It begins with an unknown Everyman trapped in car during a traffic jam. Suddenly the car starts to smoke mysteriously and he struggles to escape. Somehow, he manages to get out and then just starts floating…then flying. He’s free.
At the end of the sequence he finds himself tethered to a rope. He’s being pulled back to reality. There is a great shot of a single foot dangling, a rope around his ankle and someone pulling him down like a human kite. I have that shot in my head.
That’s what it’s like, if I can take that single still out of context.
We’re starting to float. The lightness is starting to fill us and as we rise. This life that we’ve been farming and cultivating is slowly receding beneath us and the sounds and sights of it all are growing fainter and strange.
We’re going to be sailors for a while.
Topics: Preparing to Leave |
June 14th, 2009 at 10:09 am
your imagery is lovely!!
the coolest thing though, since you’re taking your technology (and your camera!) with you, is that we all kind of get to sail with you.
i find it fascinating that if this were even ten years ago (let alone 20 or 30!), the leaving (and the trip itself) would be a different experience altogether!