Sunlight so bright poured over the eastern edge of the horizon this morning. Bright, so very bright it washed out any distinct edge to the buildings and trees that lay due east. The warmth felt good after such a long, harsh, cold and oppressive season away spent from the sun. The tendrils and then cascades of light filled every empty space, every crevice, every nook and every cranny with warmth and the promises of spring.
Over the past week the better part of nature has flirted with us. She has given us warmth but not sun. She has offered up a clear blue sky but not warmth. She has offered the promise of day like today teasingly, tantalizingly but has held back. Ah it is like great sex moving toward the moment of ecstasy but then slowing down and backing off. Teasingly our closest star's ray are bringing the senses to full alert and carefully holding them at the greatest point of awareness without fulfillment. But today nature will let the explosion of life happen. The temperature is supposed to be in the seventies and there will be nary a cloud in the sky.
What can be done on a day like this? Bruce Springsteen sings so very many songs of the road. He talks about hoping in, the door is open but the ride ain't free. This is the great American day in a huge old powerful Chevrolet heading down to the beach on back roads, drinking road beers and cranking up the tunes.
Ah that would be the day reserved for the young, the young of a different era. For the more mature today is the day to get into the yard and assess the damage. This day demands we get vinyl string for the weed whacker. Today you go and get gasoline in the five gallon tank to cover the summer's mowing needs. With care you walk about the house and see if the ice did anything to the roof. You pick the sticks up off the lawn and pull out detritus that those powerful winds of January forced into the cracks and dead spaces between the shed and the house.
A young man sitting in a Sunday school class years ago listened to his teacher. The teacher had white hair, a gentle smile and a genuinely warm demeanor. The instructor, for all the young men trying to sit there respectfully knew, was a true believer. A lesson of life, not a gospel lesson was imparted that day at least one young man was never to forget.
Old Charlie Shiffer looked at the lads under his charge. Each of them was shifting uncomfortably on their respective folding chairs set about in a semi circle on the stage of the Fellowship Hall. They were chaffing at their starched collars and some were chewing on the tips of their clip on ties. He looked at them because they didn't seem to get the urgency he felt in communicating that life would be lived with God from the start.
Sitting back he commenced, "You at your age don't know what time is. You have no idea how fast it will pass." At this point his shook his head just a tad and then continued. "When I was your age I would go fishing. As I sat there with my line in the water time passed so very slowly. The time I was there trying to catch a fish I guess was forever, it was eternity and I ached to be anywhere else. Now when I go fishing I toss my line in the water, then I nod my head and the afternoon is gone. You boys need to know that time goes so much more quickly than you realize. And when you start to notice how fast time is moving is the moment when it is almost gone. Don't waste you lives believing you have forever."
On a day like this Charlie Shiffer's words ring so true. When the sun has filled the sky with warmth the day should be embraced. Ragtops should go down. A point out of the horizon should be picked and the ever more fuel efficient car of today should be nudged in that direction. Hell, get the chores done early. Check the items off your list as fast as you can. Pick up and pack away the groceries. But let the call of the open road grab you and lead you out and away from the everyday, from the repetitive, from the ordinary. If you nod my friend the day will be gone.
Somewhere down that road I feel there is something special waiting for me. It might be an ice cream cone down the road in Hell, Michigan. Could be a view of a lakeshore perhaps. Then again today’s hidden joy might be a very special coffee in a favorite shop after a late afternoon matinee at an art house film theatre.
If you want to know what this feeling is, find the straightest road you can and just drive for an hour. Really soak up everything that fills your field of vision. Fading billboards, wandering cows, tacky roadside attractions. Then turn around and come back home and and stop at your local Biggby's (or maybe one of those other chains if you don't have a Biggby's) and get a Deluxe Mocha Mocha. Swing through the video rental place and get a copy of The Visitor. As the light is fading on a warm afternoon and you mind is still full of all you have seen in the real world leave your windows open and sink into your favorite chair. Finally let your mind wander free lost in an amazing film and savoring the day you have had.
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