The Important thing

One of my favorite kid's books just popped into my head. It's The Important Book, by Margaret Wise Brown. The book is written from the perspective of a child, full of descriptions that begin and end with the statement "the most important thing about ______ is ______."  The narrator says that the most important thing about a daisy is that it is white. Other characteristics are mentioned, but the ultimate statement is repeated and definite. It's a brilliant way of starting an open-ended discussion with a child about the world.

Well for me, the most important thing about travel is that you are somewhere else. On Sunday morning at this time I am usually sitting in my den with my puppy, watching soccer. Today I'm not doing that at all. I am in a place called Rancho Cordova. And the most important thing about Rancho Cordova is that it is not a ranch. Unless of course the most important thing about a ranch is that it be filled with nothing but strip malls and chain hotels.

Okay, I'll drop that conceit for the moment, because it's not what I meant to write about. I'm here for the purpose of being here. That's different from the rest of my life, where I am where I am either because I own this house or have this job or something along those lines. Today I'm here intentionally, with intent, by choice.

This trip is a visit, rather than a vacation. A vacation is obviously about vacating something, about leaving, getting away and not being somewhere. A visit is about being somewhere, and in this case, being with someone. It's much more positive, don't you think? I'm here to visit my cousins and my 100 year-old uncle. Unlike other trips, where I fret about itinerary and time management, all I cared about here was getting here. Once in this place, where I've visited many times before, everything would work out.

My cousin and uncle live in the same house in suburban Sacramento that they've had since before I knew of their existence. She's a couple of years younger than me and we've been close since we were kids. We've spent time at their house (they have chickens),

gone out to walk around a cute little town, and talked and talked. I got to spend time with her kids and get a feel for what her life is. I did this with and without my wife and daughter who came along. It was a visit.

This turned out to be just the thing. I have been in a rut, as literally as one can be without finding a rut and getting in it. Since mid-November it's been head down and straight ahead in everything- midterms, new class, school administration, puppy care, Thanksgiving, one kid done with semester, one kid done with college and getting an apartment, school. Nonstop. Without even a moment to look up and see where it might end. It's an awful way to be and not at all what I try to do and to be. And I was feeling it would never end.

But it did end, and just the little break of getting here, hard as it was to arrange and execute, and visiting rather than vacating is restorative in a way I was not confident it would be. Part of that is just seeing my family and part of it is just the whack-upside-the-headness of doing something different.

And lame as it sounds, the most important thing about today is that I am someplace else.