While checking out the world premiere of Step Up 3D last evening, one of the films main characters Moose shot to life an old proverb that’s been featured on over 649 million websites and yet to hear it again makes it as fresh as a late night the light is on in the window Krispy Kreme:
It’s better to travel than it is to arrive.
During an age of being bombarded by too much work and not enough play, such key phrases have somehow gotten shoved into a cardboard box and donated to the cities recycling system.
My friends Maggie and Tom find tremendous pleasure in traveling everyday…the last time I looked at a calendar I’d say they’ve spent a little of a quarter of their lives in an RV holding hands and cuddling up to tremendous levels of inner peace, solitude and well kept small town secrets that make your heart scream, “Oh neat!” Then it’s quickly off to the next place.
Master Harris from Martial Arts University constantly punches into our egos that every person in class is on a separate journey and not one of them is or will ever be the same. He teaches us focus while building a heart body and soul that grows into a quality driven machine that moves up, over, through, around any mountain that believes it stands a chance to keep you from reaching that next place…
It’s better to travel than it is to arrive.
Maybe that's why my Stepfather Joe never finished building our house near Optimist Park in Billings, Montana. It didn’t matter how embarrassed I was to bring friends over…the end result became my 48 year old self who has yet to meet another man whose mind works like his, constantly thinking, planning and bringing “simple’ to the forefront of realities bite. The downside of such bravery is the label: Never a Master always a Jack of all trades.
The credit card crisis in America is based on this nations first generation becoming addicted to, “I want it now or else.” The only travel the majority of us see is hopping in the car at 6am and hauling tail to a job where fake smiles and plastic handshakes are the key to winning. Hey! Winning is a choice. Fake it to make it. The problem is, the art of being a great actor is studied by all and very quickly your undercover strategy is identified and defused before the right foot is placed in front of the other.
It’s better to travel than it is to arrive. Is anybody really traveling? Sit in the food court of the nearest mall and the view is much too much too damaging to digest—we aren’t traveling…people are running away from. Ouch!
Modern ways and means have made it completely possible for us to overload every 24 hour period with too much travel, making it extremely difficult to learn how to properly pick it up and preserve its behavior during the moments you first met. Nobody remembers their first kiss anymore...its hard to think of what happened five minutes ago.
Why do grown men have a midlife crisis? It usually takes place during that unexpected sunrise when you suddenly realize there aren’t too many summers left on the map of everyday living. So you race as fast as you can, sacrificing all you’ve got, laying claim to every reason why you deserve to have and to hold and in the end…you can’t put any of it in the final box someone else will pick out for you.
If carmakers truly want to capitalize on aging Baby Boomers and the Gen Xer’s noisily standing next to them…quit building classic automobiles people can’t afford. Give me back the Dodge Rambler, the AMX, red and white 74 Ford pickup with giant mag wheels you fire up on every corner, the Chevy Nova that had enough guts to rip your dreams apart at take off then somehow put your life back together at the next traffic light.
I want to own the very car Rob, Tony, Neil and my sister Susan would cruise the Point in on a late, late Saturday night while cranking up new bands called Van Halen and AC/DC. Then make up horrible fibs and stories to share with the average everyday police officer that pulled us over because someone got caught sipping on homemade wine, which invited the law protectors to open the car trunk and there they sat, baseball bats and BB guns.
I want to see the reinvention of the Evil Knievel action figure that jumped over backyard ditches or Stretch Armstrong that went and went and went, Nerf living room basketball tournaments and the innocence of looking at your parents and screaming, “I can’t wait to move out!” Only to hear them reply, “I’ll get the luggage and help you pack.”
High school felt like forever, once free we turned our twenties into everything our parents said no to. We grabbed the mop and bucket to clean up the mess in our thirties only to notice life truly does begin at 40. Except the body no longer bends at the knees like it used to so we sit around with know it all doctors who claim they can fix anything only to learn their journey has invited more pain.
It’s better to travel than it is to arrive.
What if…for one week…we exercised our right to use the tool called deprivation? No living in the past. No past memories of the men or women we once loved. No music from ABBA, Fleetwood Mac and KISS. No photographs stored on Face Book for people you don’t know to point their finger at and laugh. No recipes your Grandmother shared during summer break. Not even the quote your cutting edge father spouted out while attempting to educate the future you’ve never truly gained control of.
A week to enjoy travel not the arrival.
A friend wrote to me claiming, “Since your sickness last year, you’ve traveled farther than any other time in your life. Your books are getting published; you're recording music in a real recording studio, your voice is heard all over the world on radio and television commercials, you are now ordained and write as well as deliver messages to brides and grooms, you should be extremely proud of everything you do.”
Stop…what do you think my reply was?
Don’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve spent the past year doing what I should’ve been doing the entire way. I’ve done nothing new but will the moment I catch up to everything I set aside because for some reason I honestly thought radio was the chosen destination. Everything I do was discovered years ago…I’ve not made such a find nor can I until this part of my life is given air to breathe…then we can move forward.
Not a midlife crisis...I'm traveling! Forward...
Now I challenge you to get the job done so you can find room to do what makes you just a free as Tom and Maggie. You only have a few more summers left. Get it out of your box of maybe one days and get back to living.
It’s better to travel than it is to arrive. People make money off your reasons to hold onto a past you can't change. Every CD, DVD, car, painting, whatever stinks like something you've already done, the sound of cha ching is ringing through their discovery of living off your left overs.
Move forward! Ok...you can stop rolling your eyes now. I'm done. I need a flashlight to get me off this soap box. Paul McCartney had one! See how easy it is!
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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