Road

Photo by Parker Galloway

I was recording several intros to upcoming podcast episodes when I found myself using the word

Road

Roads

Repeatedly

Roads

As if

One was paved just so you could see what’s clearly up ahead

As if somebody didn’t trust you to pave one yourself

Thinking about paths as

Separate has really tripped me up in my life

Road

Means I’ve got one destination up ahead

At least

But I could carve my own

Who am I to describe my guest’s life as walking multiple roads at once

Categories used to make me feel safe

Slip one on to something I’m doing

Now I don’t have to explain

But AI technology has made it clear that the categories we once understood for everything are now

Going away

Disintegrating into nonsense

The opposite of Dada

Where sense becomes slowly but surely

Silly

Until it’s ashes

And Alice in Wonderland barely contains any recognizable references to our modern world

Meanwhile

Years ago

Jack Kerouac just wanted to go On The Road

And he did whatever he had to do to get there

And somewhere a long the way, people became generally scared of

Off Roading

Doing something that was not

Recognizable

Anything unfamiliar became a Red Flag

I’ve been reminding myself lately to slow down

To free everything and enjoy

Savor watching as your life shifts

And the direction it was headed in bends and moulds into this new

Hybrid of

All my tastes and desires which

Without trying seem most of the time to align with yours

My love

When capitalism isn’t ricocheting our lives with scheduling conflicts

Or no clock out times really

I love that one of my guests is constantly going from different gigs to different gigs doing different things

Shapeshifting

That’s so cool to be able to separate yourself

I’m just like

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Me Myself and I

While also being together with others who I chose

Not anyone I put up with

No one wants to be on either side of that coin

The not wanted or the bored

When I left Chicago, I just wanted to go on the road of my mind to a new city and a new region

And I found it

And I dusted it off

And I made it

Mine