Hey, friend. Hope this finds you well. A slower day today. I’m supposed to be taking it easy for a while, as you know. So I’m not out on the road as much as I used to be. Which means I’m not driving distances as much as I used to. I must admit part of me misses some of that, maybe the contemplation time that was available on the way, and maybe too some of the things I experienced on the other end of the trip. I remember coming to one town I’d never been in before and finding myself being invited to go explore the huge pipe organ in the cathedral while it was being renovated. I don’t know if you’ve ever spent any time poking around a major instrument like that, there are entire rooms full of pumps and vents and levers and reservoirs and pipes. It goes on forever. I remember at one point climbing up several ladders, scrambling along a walkway and coming out in a space completely enclosed by gear that was meant to manipulate the tremendous airflow needed to make sound, and it all wheezed and roared.
It was one of those moments–I suddenly understood that I was standing inside the Industrial Revolution’s response to the concept of “Musical Instrument”. I looked around and took it all in. Clack. Boom. Wheeze. Didn’t have a camera but it’ll stick with me a long time.
So yeah, I guess sometimes I miss driving. Maybe not for reasons you might think. But sometimes…