movement, movement

Luke and I are sitting at the airport. We both booked flights out of Portland on the same night since neither felt like hanging out alone for a day or two. Everytime I come to a place like this I realize how disconnected people are. Maybe I’m a part of the problem. How often do you walk through an airport or even sit on a plane and talk with the person or persons nearby. (the ones you’re not traveling with) I rarely do, for me it usually takes a sense of friendliness coming from the other person for me to feel comfortable with it. I tend to be an introvert, especially in unfamiliar places.

Luke is flying out and not coming back in a week when I do. About a week after he moved here he got the job he’s been waiting 8 months on, so he’ll be flying to Tuscon in a couple days to report for training. He’s gonna be a Border Patrol officer. I’m not really looking or thinking ahead to when I come back to Hood River and don’t have a roommate to hang out with.

My good friend Jillianne gave us a ride to Portland this afternoon. Luke has a huge binder of information for his new job and it was right when we got to Gate C14 that he realized he left it somewhere. Either in Jillianne’s car or at the Frontier Airlines check-in counter. He borrowed my phone since he doesn’t have Jillianne’s phone number and took off back through security. Meanwhile, I’m thinking.. “Hey, thats my phone..” Its weird how naked you can feel when something like that is missing. What if he gets mugged or lost of has a heart attack sometime in the next hour before he gets back and my plane boards, me without a phone. Thats a weird feeling. I think I would almost be paralyzed. I’m a smart guy, I have all my contacts on my computer, iPod, and some in my head, but how inconvenient it would be to use a payphone when I get to Denver!

Oh good, here comes Luke. Crisis averted.

Today is my lovely Grandmother’s birthday. I won’t see her today, but I will tomorrow. Grandma Judy is 74 today. She always had a problem with how old she is. Even when she was in her 50′s (and I can remember that far back). She’s the type of grandma who hates mentioning how old she is in years. I hope that when I’m 74 I’m still exploring, still journeying. I’ll never have made it back home to true retirement. I usually think of retirement as giving up. Throwing in the towel, taking your earned right to be selfish and lazy for the rest of your life. I suppose it doesn’t completely apply, and its not like I would expect an elder to still be working. But life is about lots more than work. When are you more wise than when you’ve experienced so many years. Just when a person’s wisdom is most needed and most valuable is when they check out? The nature/culture/attitude of our world I suppose.