Thanks, Dad! Not a bad place to be, in the end, the mental state or the town. I spent an hour walking around town talking pictures of old buildings. You were right there with me.
In that little book I read as a child there is a line that says - "In New Zealand you can ski down a mountain, soak in a hot pool and swim in an ocean all in one day" In those days , I knew nothing about skiing or hot pools and my ocean experience was limited to being knocked over by waves in Far Rockaway - but for some reason that line stuck with me. My Wellington confession is that now, years after, there is often a sense of claustrophobia and saudade.
Thanks, Susan! Yeah, the scale is so weird! Weird because I find it really hard to express how it actually matters to daily lived life? I was in NYC this trip and fell hard for it all over again, but the sky is nothing and there's no horizon and why is that so important?? NZ gets its bigness from the ocean around it, I think. But I can't always make this work in my heart.
"Goddamn, I hate the general American veneration of bloodshed."
Me too, Dan. Me too. And it's getting harder and harder to find a way to exist here without seeing it everywhere. Nearly 250 years since we threw off the yoke of the British monarchy, and it's as if we never really wanted to live in peace. How long will it take for us to see that other countries, other cultures exist (and flourish!) without worshipping at the altar of violence? Now it seems that we simply rotate our attachment to different types of tyranny all in hopes that we can shoot our way out of it.
Yeah peace is boring, right? Peace is not where heroes are made. In peace the hero gets tied down and loses his freedom. Once more unto the breach. Sigh
It's wonderful to see my hometown written up so well! It was surreal to see you all in of all places downtown freaking Salina, KS. It was moving see it written up by you in your stop-through. I loved the part about the United Building, which has always fascinated me too growing up there. I remember asking my mom what it was because you can always see it coming into town from the top of "the Hill," then watch it receded to the horizon as you drive down. I have still never been in it. Never banked at UMB, I guess, or really even considered that it could be entered.
Yeah man, so crazy to see y'all there! Glad you dig it. Seeing Salina as your hometown changed my whole view of it, made it all that much more real. At the time I felt pretty frazzled by the whole car thing, and the general madness of the home visit. But sitting down to write about Salina I had nothing but fondness. Funny how the unplanned bit always becomes the icon of the journey, right? Let's buy the dang United Building, and do nothing with it but watch the sunset from the top!
Great piece. Reminded me of moving from LA to KC in the mid ‘90s and getting stuck when our truck broke down in beautiful Needles, California. Would have greatly preferred Salina, frankly.
Glad you like it! The cheerfully named Needles is definitely Advanced Auto Breakdown territory. Used to blast through Blythe CA back and forth between Phoenix and the beach as a kid. The Mojave is god's country and beyond, for sure. Salina was honestly a delight!
Those half-empty art deco buildings dotting the midwest are right out of a Jack Reacher book. I love Jack Reacher books. And Dylan? Best songwriter of all time, you ask me, but nobody asked me. Finally: Did the kids find any snakes? I hate snakes but acknowledge my fear is beyond rational.
We missed the snakes in Kansas, which was probably a good thing--more rattlers and such. But my son caught a western garter in Colorado, he was pretty stoked!
Hi Rachel! Thanks, that’s so lovely. I wanted to do a voiceover on this one but literally hit send while making the kids’ lunches and there just wasn’t time. An honor, to be live in Indiana!
I wonder … does any place ever really truly feel like home? Settled, belonging, done traveling? Or is every place, every town, every house simply a way station between the last place and the next?
Yes, in the great Buddhist sense...? But I'd venture to say a lot of folks do feel the home thing, at least far stronger than I do? Who knows. Way stations are comfy enough for me (repeat this like a prayer)
Well done, Dan. Spoke to me. We’ve all been in a Salinas state of mind, unvarnished and transitory.
Thanks, Dad! Not a bad place to be, in the end, the mental state or the town. I spent an hour walking around town talking pictures of old buildings. You were right there with me.
Loved this Dan.
In that little book I read as a child there is a line that says - "In New Zealand you can ski down a mountain, soak in a hot pool and swim in an ocean all in one day" In those days , I knew nothing about skiing or hot pools and my ocean experience was limited to being knocked over by waves in Far Rockaway - but for some reason that line stuck with me. My Wellington confession is that now, years after, there is often a sense of claustrophobia and saudade.
Thanks, Susan! Yeah, the scale is so weird! Weird because I find it really hard to express how it actually matters to daily lived life? I was in NYC this trip and fell hard for it all over again, but the sky is nothing and there's no horizon and why is that so important?? NZ gets its bigness from the ocean around it, I think. But I can't always make this work in my heart.
The ocean also gives a sense of smallness.
"But I can't always make this work in my heart" is the perfect way to describe it - and so very true.
we used to make pretty buildings pretty much everywhere, a proper country
So true. Stare at those cathedrals long enough and your heart just breaks.
"Goddamn, I hate the general American veneration of bloodshed."
Me too, Dan. Me too. And it's getting harder and harder to find a way to exist here without seeing it everywhere. Nearly 250 years since we threw off the yoke of the British monarchy, and it's as if we never really wanted to live in peace. How long will it take for us to see that other countries, other cultures exist (and flourish!) without worshipping at the altar of violence? Now it seems that we simply rotate our attachment to different types of tyranny all in hopes that we can shoot our way out of it.
Yeah peace is boring, right? Peace is not where heroes are made. In peace the hero gets tied down and loses his freedom. Once more unto the breach. Sigh
It's wonderful to see my hometown written up so well! It was surreal to see you all in of all places downtown freaking Salina, KS. It was moving see it written up by you in your stop-through. I loved the part about the United Building, which has always fascinated me too growing up there. I remember asking my mom what it was because you can always see it coming into town from the top of "the Hill," then watch it receded to the horizon as you drive down. I have still never been in it. Never banked at UMB, I guess, or really even considered that it could be entered.
Yeah man, so crazy to see y'all there! Glad you dig it. Seeing Salina as your hometown changed my whole view of it, made it all that much more real. At the time I felt pretty frazzled by the whole car thing, and the general madness of the home visit. But sitting down to write about Salina I had nothing but fondness. Funny how the unplanned bit always becomes the icon of the journey, right? Let's buy the dang United Building, and do nothing with it but watch the sunset from the top!
Great piece. Reminded me of moving from LA to KC in the mid ‘90s and getting stuck when our truck broke down in beautiful Needles, California. Would have greatly preferred Salina, frankly.
Glad you like it! The cheerfully named Needles is definitely Advanced Auto Breakdown territory. Used to blast through Blythe CA back and forth between Phoenix and the beach as a kid. The Mojave is god's country and beyond, for sure. Salina was honestly a delight!
Those half-empty art deco buildings dotting the midwest are right out of a Jack Reacher book. I love Jack Reacher books. And Dylan? Best songwriter of all time, you ask me, but nobody asked me. Finally: Did the kids find any snakes? I hate snakes but acknowledge my fear is beyond rational.
We missed the snakes in Kansas, which was probably a good thing--more rattlers and such. But my son caught a western garter in Colorado, he was pretty stoked!
I read this one aloud. You write the bittersweet so well.
Hi Rachel! Thanks, that’s so lovely. I wanted to do a voiceover on this one but literally hit send while making the kids’ lunches and there just wasn’t time. An honor, to be live in Indiana!
Nice one, Dan!
Thanks man!
I wonder … does any place ever really truly feel like home? Settled, belonging, done traveling? Or is every place, every town, every house simply a way station between the last place and the next?
Yes, in the great Buddhist sense...? But I'd venture to say a lot of folks do feel the home thing, at least far stronger than I do? Who knows. Way stations are comfy enough for me (repeat this like a prayer)