Driven to do

# Chapter 181

Road trips with blood clots and broken feet are not what the wise choose to do. But wisdom rarely drives many of our decisions it seems. We are instead, emotional creatures and our sense of obligation and “ought to” apparently drives us far more often. Because here we are barreling down the road at 65 miles an hour with these precise ailments wearing us down and long road trips are not part of the prescribed solution, and are in fact part of the cause of these problems. Yeah long road trips on the highway or in the air should not be a part of our current schedules, but yet they are, because of guilt and expectations.

If we were wise we would expect those other people to come see us, and to make the long trip to our house, to travel hours and hours and hours to check in on us. But this does not happen, because we decide that they are more important than we are, and that this burden lies at our feet, broken though they may be. This is not wise, this is foolhardy and yet it is happening.

So to mitigate all the things that are going wrong with our bodies, we are stopping often, stretching our legs and walking often (or limping as the case may be) and generally throwing the schedule of speed out the door along with our wisdom. We will get there when we get there, but we are still going to get there. I don’t remember being this foolish when I was living overseas, it must be an American affliction.