looking_backward tourist Tedium Puctuated By Bliss. My Steps Now Prescribed By Resposibility... I Miss The Days Of Waking Up, Preparing A Simple Meal Of Oats Almonds And Dried Fruit. Cleaning And Repacking My Gear. Then Waiting By An Onramp For Whatever Ride Would Come My Way. Nowhere I Had To Be. No Clocks. My Home On My Back. As People Passed By I Felt More A Part Of Everything, I Saw Myself In Everyone. My Best Days Were When I Let Go Of All Expectations, And Allowed Myself To Learn From Everyone. People Had To make A Split Second Decision To Let Me In To Their Lives Or Pass On By. I Had To Make A Similar Choice Of Anyone Who Offered. Reading "the vibe" Of People Was Part Of The Survival Skills One Honed, No Less Important Than Finding Shelter Or Making Fire. And It Was A Two Way Street. When I Was Anxious About Something, Impending Weather, Brush With Danger ect. I Emitted That Information In My Stance Or On My Face, And The Drivers Passing By Would Sense It. Needless To Say If I Didn't Get My Mind Right I Didn't Move From That Spot. But When I Relaxed, And Took In The Whole Scene, The Sky, The Flow Of Traffic, The Faces Flashing By.... It Would Invariably Deliver Me Up To Someone With Nuggets Of Wisdom To Share. Some Days It Was As If A Theme Would Be Reexamined So I Could Study It From Several Different Angles. Now I Know That I Can't Go Back, Or Leave My Wife For The Open Road, And I Love The Garden And House I Work To Hold On To, But As I Get Older, I Yearn For The Simpler Things. I Suppose This Is True Of Us All. And I Remember That It Wasn't All One Sweet Dream. I Was Young Enough To Expierience The Angst And Lonliness Of Being An Outsider, Unsure And Fumbling Through Social Interaction. In Fact It Was This Failing In Conversation And Friendship, That Put Me On The Road To Begin With. Knowing That I Would Have To Relate To Others If They Were My Means Of Transport. And In The End The Experiment Worked. And I Was Reshaped By The Adventure, Into What I Believe Is A Better And More Compasionate Version Of My Self. 080529 ... Lemon_Soda I feel your words. 080529 ... LEMON SODA RESPONDING CHECK 081110 ... echosounding ... 130305 ... past the best history is always active. 130306 ... Tourist As one of the few Old Timers where I work I can attest to the Fact the Truth of the Past is not carved in stone. As the Old Guard retreats, the Young Turks revise things to suit the New Agenda. This is not nesessarily intentional on their part, We have All had to create Our individual realities. It Is The Way Things Are. 130307 what's it to you? who go blather from