An American Road Trip: On The Way to Something New.
When I tell people I am going on a road trip this summer, I am amazed at their responses. Not since my teenage years have my friends so strongly encouraged me to flee all responsibility and go and do whatever I wanted. When I tell them that I am driving out west for ten days, they react as if I just explained the best way to prank the principal's car. Their prefrontal cortex shuts down; their fingers start to twitch as visions of rebellion dance in their eyes. Cool, cool, man. I'm happy for you," they say as they shake their heads to clear the visions, bending over to pick up their two-year-old crawling toward the stairs. And I, free from such suburban obligations, walk away from the conversation all the more resolute in my desire to go on this road trip. "I am doing this for each of you," I think to myself. I have to do it for them. I am going on this trip to see what it is like to live out of that freedom for a while, a freedom that can question who I am, that can still wonder just how big is the world."Reprinted with permission from The Jesuit Post (thejesuitpost.org), May 4, 2015....