Go West ( and a bit North... where the hell are we?)

I mentioned in an earlier post that my brother is now safe at home after a very extended deployment overseas (not in a good place).  A couple of weeks ago we got to spend some great time together as a family issue came up in the City with Big Shoulders that we both had to attend to.  He lives in Fayetteville NC and I in Virginia Beach so we met in Emporia and made the drive together.  There is no better way to connect or reconnect with someone than to get in a car together for 2o hours.  In short we had a blast.  We talked about everything.  The war, politics, the elections, his girls, my son, Buddhism, bicycling, baseball, running, not running, Elvin Jones's time feel, How our relationship with music differs and is similar...that just about got us to Richmond.   :)

The circumstances under which we made the drive were not the best but it was a gift to be able to spend so much time with him.

I hadn't realized just how much I missed him.  My family is very quiet.  We don't call each other on Sunday afternoons and an email every month is really a lot of talking.  It may be months between conversations, but they always pick up in the same spot they left off.  As we drove and talked, I thought that most families probably have their own dialect.  A version of English that anyone could hear and understand, but not get the subtext of.  Ours revolves around movies.  For example, I was driving and looking at his GPS.  He saw me and just muttered one word..."lost".  I was worthless with laughter for several minutes because I knew he was quoting a scene form the old John Landis film "1941".  There are probably only three people in the world who could witness that exchange and understand the meaning.  

Here is a list of some of the things that our discussions made me remember:

I love to be outside.  

I miss camping.

Will can always win. 

It is possible to be objective and admit what I do well.

Family is paramount.

There are never enough books.

It is possible to disagree pleasantly.

Ars Longa.

Education is not something that a school gives you.

Focus on what you can do for change and do it, regardless of the seeming futility.

Tony Williams really was THAT BAD!

The difference between job, career, and vocation.

Speak your truth, even if amounts to casting pearls before swine.

ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS have a camera.

It was a really nice drive.