AMERICAN ROAD TRIP
This is a photo essay for my husband. A man who, for as long as I have known him, is always working towards something, but who then became a man deciding to stop and give it all up so we could explore. Why? Because we can chose to. Because big or little, the choices that we make slowly shape the course of our lives. So thank you for creating the rift that set us off in a new direction.
Your days, which had once been defined by morning, afternoon, evening, weekday, weekend, were stripped away. When time had been short you wondered, where do the days run off to? So together we set off to find out. We packed the essentials into your Ford Fiesta and drove West from Dallas. For two and half months we lived on the roads that took us through the Southwest, down to Baja, up the West Coast, North to Canada, and finally East.
We made new friends, reconnected with old ones, visited family. We were caught up in the mundane, the sublime, and everything in between. We were witness to the beauty of your homeland. The deserts, the dunes, the ancient trees, and the forests meeting the ragged coastline. Everything that makes us feel small and unimportant. Everything that slows down time. Everything that you wanted. The sun burned our skin, the fog stranded us, the mountains left us breathless, the night sky took away our words, and the ocean revived us. You sketched the patterns that filled your head. Your hair grew long and blonde, your beard filled in with white. Friends told you that they had never seen you so calm and others couldn’t know otherwise. I agreed.
I was there to capture you. To see the changes. I am here to tell you that no, it was not all dream.
Your days, which had once been defined by morning, afternoon, evening, weekday, weekend, were stripped away. When time had been short you wondered, where do the days run off to? So together we set off to find out. We packed the essentials into your Ford Fiesta and drove West from Dallas. For two and half months we lived on the roads that took us through the Southwest, down to Baja, up the West Coast, North to Canada, and finally East.
We made new friends, reconnected with old ones, visited family. We were caught up in the mundane, the sublime, and everything in between. We were witness to the beauty of your homeland. The deserts, the dunes, the ancient trees, and the forests meeting the ragged coastline. Everything that makes us feel small and unimportant. Everything that slows down time. Everything that you wanted. The sun burned our skin, the fog stranded us, the mountains left us breathless, the night sky took away our words, and the ocean revived us. You sketched the patterns that filled your head. Your hair grew long and blonde, your beard filled in with white. Friends told you that they had never seen you so calm and others couldn’t know otherwise. I agreed.
I was there to capture you. To see the changes. I am here to tell you that no, it was not all dream.
My beard grows to my toes,
I never wear no clothes,
I wraps my hair
Around my bare,
And down the road I goes.
- Beard by Shel Silverstein
I never wear no clothes,
I wraps my hair
Around my bare,
And down the road I goes.
- Beard by Shel Silverstein
