Enlightenment

Driving with no brakes.

But let’s take a step back

and share that once it was

proposed driving

with no licence

was the path.

Wrong.

Did that, done that.

Across the county and back.

26 states in total I think,

sleeping in a tent

out the back end

of a dodge pickup truck.

At the end of those 5 weeks…

(I repeated the attempt

the following year just

to make sure I wasn’t

missing something)

…nothing but overtired

with a bad case of saddle burn.

So back to the point.

Driving with no brakes.

Stupid. Yes.

Scary. Yes.

Exquisite. Yes.

Especially when you live

in the mountains.

The direct route is often

untenable

as you can’t traverse

downhills that continue

much more than a quarter mile,

so a trip to the store for eggs

might require a path

that triples your distance.

What one discovers

is there really are

different ways

to navigate this world.

Sure, go directly from point

A to B.

Or, drive to the corner

and flip a coin.

Heads turn right.

Tails turn left.

Continue that process

Until you reach your

destination.

Who needs brakes anyways?

8 thoughts on “Enlightenment

  1. I like how you’ve written this, Richard. It sounds terrifying to me, but then I’ve never been one for taking risks. I can’t imagine having no choice but driving without brakes, though. That’s a long old trip to get eggs! I love the photo you’ve included – it’s really effective 💜.

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