“TRAVEL IN LOCAL SPACES”
“The Sunday drive on Tuesday afternoon”

by Jessica Kuzmier

     Sometimes life is just too much to deal with. Hassles at work, dealing with bills, whatever it is that makes this Western way of life so special can also drive you nuts. There is a convenient Western invention out of this mess- the great automobile. Whatever you want to say about the fifties, I am glad that Eisenhower came up with the idea of the interstate. Sometimes an open road seems like God's modern medicine.

     I had this situation recently, and my automobile was waiting for me. No map. No plan. Just get into the car and drive. I wasn't sure where I would wind up, but as long as I had a credit card for gas and oil, and of course the all-important post-9/11 cell phone, I was fine as far as I was concerned.

     A lot of times on these drives, I'm not in much of a search for touristy things to take my mind off of things. Too reality driven, too many people; sort of like those politically correct therapeutic recommendations: get back involved with the community, mix with the masses, and presto, you are as good as new. Nah, the point of these things is to get away from all these people. Crowds and mental health drives mix about as well as a conservative Southern Baptist preacher in a mosh pit. When I am on these drives, the point of the drive is to drive. I don't take notebooks to mark the details so I have a perfect article for later on. I just keep driving until the caffeine urge hits, and then I pull over to the nearest gas station and imbibe one-dollar-for-a-pint-a-half of coffee. I use about half a pint of milk and three or four flavored creamers. Sometimes I just drink it right there in the parking lot, watching the cars come in and out. If I am near an interstate, sometimes the plates are from out of state, but if I'm not, they usually are in-state plates, even in tourist season.

     Driving like this where I take everything around me in without getting too hung up on the details is a kind of meditation for me. Henry David Thoreau talked about walking as meditation. I like that kind as well, but sometimes I need to go further than my feet can take me, and it's nice to live in an age when that is possible. As a good human rights activist, I feel obliged to say, it's also nice to live in an area where it isn't illegal for a woman to drive alone.

     Sometimes I find just driving past where people work and live gives me perspective; other people have lives. When you get stuck in your own way it's easy to forget that. But somehow, just passing so many people and buildings in so little time is a reminder that there are other people out there, just trying to live their lives like anyone else.

     Usually, a few hours later, it is time to go home. I feel ready once again to deal with my life. A couple hours of escapism is all that is needed. Then I can go about the business of being a productive citizen of this small planet.