Road trip thoughts: Go and get some perspective

“It’s funny when you are on a road trip and have nothing to do, it’s still doing something.”

(Me, post-trip thoughts on Instagram)

I originally thought of calling this post ‘A Clark Griswold diary of big intentions for big moments’, reflecting on the infamous lead character in the National Lampoon Vacation movie series. My family has an affinity for the Vacation movies, especially the Christmas Vacation, and I occasionally compare myself to Clark when I travel. I could not help doing so on this recent #bucketlist trip I took throughout western Canada and United States. Why compare to Clark Griswold? Well here is a simple list for you:

1. He anticipates every moment to come.
2. He has a childlike list of requirements for every holiday.
3. He goes to almost any length to make these amazing moments happen.
4. He tries to convince everyone in the family that what he wants to do is what everyone should really want to do.
5. It never goes as planned and the fun is in his getting reacquainted with reality and his family in the process.

So yes, my kids might say I resemble Clark Griswold when I travel…or take in big moments…or try to make big moments. Even when I travel alone!

I intentionally travelled alone, as you may have noted in my last post from the first portion of my trip. I called that the ‘learning’ portion and ended with the encouragement to Pause. The next portion I continued to learn, but it was through going to significant places, talking to real people, and reflecting on what it means to be a citizen of this planet while still discerning deeper matters of living in community. This part of the trip was checking items off my bucket list and going to places I might not plan on going anytime soon.

A question that struck me in the middle of the trip: Is travelling a selfish endeavour?

I guess it depends on how you look at it. This was one of the questions that came up as I came up on week 3 of being on the road. I could remember phrases from my upbringing as I drove from one place to another, and one in particular bounced around my skull:

“That’s so wasteful.”

Funny, that statement or ones like it, came up a lot, but many of my favourite travelling memories come from that same era. The Rockies, Niagara Falls, Black Hills, Minneapolis, etc. etc. were all visited before I got my driver’s license, at the same time as conversations on wasting money or time. Once I sat down and investigated how those opposing, or maybe complimentary, ideas floated in the same mental space, I journaled about something that comes up often in my work, my conversations, and I would say, in all our circles of life. (Yes, I did this in a very beautiful place on a very beautiful day!)

Perspective is the key.

We gain perspective through life, through experience, through challenge, and through changing what we see through the window from time to time. I like meeting the author of the book I read that changed my (you guessed it) perspective. I like seeing pictures of a place but breathing its air and feeling the dirt in my hand, changes something in the way I view my own dirt at home. Talking with someone who lives in a space I covet or admire is different than just seeing that place. They give me perspective.

We all have perspective on everything. For some of us, we struggle with looking at the same picture that caused us to see things one way, but fail to take a moment and turn our chair a few degrees to see the window. Perspectives change with the encounter before us causing us to look at whatever the subject may be with new thoughts and feelings.

You can apply this challenge to perspective to anything in your life, you get to choose the adventure on this one. I think of my interactions while walking along the Grand Canyon as an example:

• Everyone scrambling to get the best photo experience at the first lookout from the parking lots, me getting frustrated and hoping the whole experience will not be like this.
• As I approach the rail, asked to move so people can continue their family photo shoot, and I remember one blogger’s advice: Remember, the further you walk, the less people will be around.
• Within 30-minutes of walking, I realize the blogger was right. There are only a few people that I keep running into, and we keep acknowledging each other every time. Somehow, in the next hour, we seem to become friends. (That may be a Clark Griswold moment for me, I seem to try and make friends with strangers a lot)
• By myself, only the wind is now audible, and I take a moment to silently listen, smell, feel the surroundings of this majestic space. I am in awe. Then, out of nowhere…
• A loud, older man (probably my age but I reserve the right to consider myself perpetually young for the sake of this story) is walking along the path, through this moment, on a business call. I judge him silently and will do so again when I encounter him 20 minutes later, still on the same call.
• I mean, it is the Grand freakin’ Canyon! You are on a business call briskly walking the trail past people who are having spiritual experiences and wiping tears from their eyes. Perspective.
• I finally acknowledge the young German man who has been within a few feet of me this whole time, quietly taking pictures with a good camera, dressed like he is going to do something amazing on his website with these pictures. He exhibits patience and grace to the phone talkers, the Tik Tok’ers, and just takes in the right space and time to take great pictures. After the pictures, he stands and takes in the view.
• Over the next hour plus I take pictures of all the same things I already photographed, because the earth has moved, the view is amazing, and the perspective has changed.

“You get to feel small,
but not out of place at all.”

“Gift Shop”, The Tragically Hip

I could apply those moments to any one of the other places and conversations I had throughout the trip. And I could apply them to the view at home.

I walked with a young couple from BC in Las Vegas, both on our way to the Sphere, not knowing exactly what Google Maps was trying to tell us. So we figured it out together. At one point, one half of the couple tripped on the sidewalk, while there was a whole group of people walking towards us. An older man yelled out, from roughly 3-feet away, “Watch it!” A nice dose of insult to injury. I was shocked. I looked at him and said,

“For some reason, that might be a Canadian difference. My response was to ask if you were OK.”

We all laughed and agreed. Perspective.

Perspective. You go to the Grand Canyon to compare your thumb to the furthest point you can see along the canyon. Kind of like the orienteering trick for estimating how much daylight you have left, stacking your fingers horizontally to see how far the Sun is from setting, and each finger becomes an hour. The canyon is still grand, the Sun is still huge, but from that perspective it looks no bigger than your thumb and may lose some of its grandeur. Getting a different perspective changes our outlook on more than just what we happen to be sizing up in the moment.

On this trip I was reminded of 3 common elements that come up when we discuss the God of the Bible, the God of faith. These items have been mentioned in literature and philosophy for many years, so they were nothing new, but throughout every turn, and every new direction I travelled, they came to mind in a new way:

Beauty.

No matter how chaotic the setting or the awe-inspiring backdrop that took time and change to occur as the spectacle we see today, it spoke to the beauty of God in creation. People, places, conversations, strange in-betweens and transitions, cycles and seasons, birth, growth, death, rebirth, they all spoke of the beauty of God, and our desire to see it. Sometimes we may see this as what we would call ‘awe’. We are impacted by the moment of beauty, and it sticks with us.

Love.

There are so many levels to the concept of love in this world, all originating from the same place. We all strive for it, thrive in it, and learn from it. God gave us the ability to love and be loved, as the divine image bearers, but also gave us the capacity to love and care for all things that make this globe home. Love was visible everywhere, even in the spaces where it was missing the mark.

Peace (Shalom).

This topic came up a lot during the first half of the trip because of the conferences and intentional conversations I took part in. God desires that humanity would seek shalom, be people of shalom, and that our imagination for our space and all relationships would be marked by shalom. We often go to the English word ‘peace’ in this, but there is something about the idea of ‘shalom’ that just hits different. Completion, contentment, all is made right, beyond the absence of turmoil, rather a rebuilding and re-creation. I originally wanted to use the term ‘truth’ here, but I was overcome with how prevalent the concept of shalom had become in each and every moment. We do not always have the words for the moment, but the idea is planted in each one of us, no matter where we are.

Perspective. That is my answer for this trip. That is my answer for most things we engage in when it comes to living life as though the book is not yet finished being written. We gain perspective, we challenge it, we find it, and we change it. It is part of being people of shalom in every corner, creating space for the opportunity to change things and be changed. And as we step out of our place of comfort, we remove the things missed or ‘shoulds’ that may occur, embracing what we were given in each day…

“There are no regrets, only future considerations.”

(Text to my son about places I could have visited 😊)

Once you’re done pausing, go!