I walked, or rode my bike, on dirt paths through the desert in Texas. I can still smell the damp mesquite and flowering cactus after a summer rain, and see the poppy’s covering the San Jacinto mountains. On the weekends my parents took us into the mountains of New Mexico to follow other dirt paths on horseback. We would gallop across meadows then go to the stream to water the horses. No worries, just dirt paths.
The cobblestone or brick streets signified the growth and changes, because in history as the roads changed so did we advance and the horses are replaced by the automobile. I, too, grew with the times (in my SS396) and went out on my own travelling the country as a photographer. I learned to care for, trust an like myself. hen one learns to be a responsible adult (said tongue in cheek) there is a great contentment in knowing ones self.
I relate my (finally) going to college and the paved boulevard with its wide, multiple lanes and accessible turn arounds. While driving you can easily turn and go another direction without addressing a stop light, as in college changing majors. For myself, I travelled, experienced and grew before knowing what I wanted to go to college for, and there I learned structure as in an outline. The pride in myself and from my parents made me very content.
But then it was time to get on the interstate high speed highway of professional employment. The scenery is mostly gone but who notices because there is so much traffic and everyone is in a hurry. But then you look and you are coming into NYC, Chicago or Chattanooga at night and the lights are so beautiful; or you are driving through the Blue Ridge Parkway or up Highway 1 and you look to your right or left to a pasture or amazing seascape (for those of you in the UK, sheep) and everyone sees it too so the flow of traffic turns gentle just like a great job.
My contentment, now that I am retired is reading and writing and I am riding a bike down a land in Provence or I ride a horse in Devon or the Highlands of Scotland, or my beloved desert southwest. I am content in books and writing and, hopefully, we will all be content with our memories.
