OBSERVATIONS FROM THE ROAD I was traveling through Western New Mexico and Arizona last week, to go visit our newest addition to our family, our new granddaughter. It was about a 10 ½ hour drive from Raton to Kingman, with nothing to slow the interstate route down except for the occasional food / gas / potty stop, and a few poorly placed construction zones. But I have to admit I love road trips, no matter the reason or distance. I harbor a secret envy for all those truck drivers out there, chewing up the pavement with their huge rigs (although I’m sure the majority of them would have a hundred war stories that would make me feel perfectly happy driving this desk). But there’s something reassuring, in these nail-biting economically questionable times, in seeing scores of these monster trucks unwinding the miles while transporting some presumed product of necessity to some unknown marketplace beyond the horizon. At some point in these extended trips, my mind begins to wander over the surrounding, sometime desolate, landscape, wondering at the history behind certain small villages and towns, seemingly just clinging to life in our modern age, but at some point long ago had to be someone’s fulfillment of a dream and a destination. I also ponder what entailed a “road trip” for some of them; a 700 mile trek by car and back is defined as “a visit,” and can be accomplished in a couple of days. A 700 mile trek a hundred years ago was possibly defined as a “permanent relocation,” was maybe still done on horseback or wagon, and was done over a period of weeks or more. Then my mind wanders back even further to the travels of our Lord Jesus, or the Apostle Paul, or Moses. They traveled by foot, or donkey, and endured every sort of outdoor hardship to get it done. But get it done, they did, and their work and example have endured far beyond several millennia, and have stood for so much more importance than any purposes we travel for today. It is also at these times that I realize my life has become too defined by modern technology, up to and including this computer I am writing to you with. Perhaps we need to allow ourselves the grace and simplicity every now and then to “de-technify” (probably not a real word, til now). “Father, forgive my obsessions with the technical ‘convenience’ which too often clutter my time and my life. Allow me your occasional islands of refreshing simplicity and show me the really important ‘travels’ you have in store for me.” Rick Trice - 9/24/08