Wheels Of Freedom

There's a nip in the air. Thoughts are turning to the upcoming Holiday season. A chance to spend time with friends and family is on our mind. We're a "spread out" people so travel plans are usually necessary to enjoy visits.

May I make a strong personal recommendation? Try wheels. Forget the bargain air fares and the airport security hassles. Take a little extra time and use your wheels.

I'm convinced that a spiritual effect of the 911 events
was shaking us out of old patterns. We took too much
for granted. Our collective tragedy has caused us to reexamine our personal values and develop a new appreciation of those who are dearest to us. And our
country.

Wheels can help. Really.

My recent experience of using trusty wheels for travel, instead of flying around like a bird, has given my
process of doing a personal values inventory a real jump start.

While it is true that when you FLY OVER this magnificent country, you get a real sense of its majesty and
magnitude, it is equally true that when you traverse it
by wheels you get a profound sense of its INNARDS.

Foremost I think, we're a country of the dirt -- and the hard scrabble values that spring from soil -- be it rich
or poor -- along with this season's crop.

Agriculture, after all, is a no-nonsense endeavor. You can't "spin" the truth this way or that to make the crops come in. You get no crops without good seed. You accomplish nothing by wearing out the soil. You really realize that the Creator IS in control. The sunshine,
the rain, the elements generally are very little
influenced by YOU. You operate day by day on FAITH.
Crops grow in their own time. Not much way to speed
things up, distort things, lie or bamboozle trying to present a pretty picture or "cooking the books to make
your quarterly numbers look good." The harvest TELLS THE TALE succinctly!

As wheels take you down the highways of this incredible nation, the utility poles ticking the miles away, you're hypnotized by white stripes dashing that black ribbon to nowhere -- and everywhere -- and you FEEL things differently.

For one, you get a sense of how incredibly blessed the
USA is as a nation. All of the robust resources that God has entrusted us with. You recognize what a great system we have in this country -- when it is kept PURE -- and
how it MUST have been Divinely Inspired. You see much tangible proof of hard work and what it has created --
both the good and some of the not so good.

You get a different sense of our people. Good people.
Not the top ONE per cent in this country who own THIRTY
PER CENT of the ENTIRE USA wealth. But the rest of us.
You see folks going about every day life.

You think about THEIR personal values. Their work, their families, their friends. Their confusions, their hopes and dreams. Their histories. Their vulnerabilities. Their fears. What they know from their own life experiences. What they're being told by the daily media. What they think they know. And what they may not really know.

And most of all, USA wheel travel, for me at least, is a profound and stirring reminder of FREEDOM. The freedom
to get up and go. The freedom to decide which way to
point yourself today. The freedom of which route to follow, what sights to see, what destination to choose. All on your own schedule. Traveling as light, or as
heavy as you want. The FREEDOM that created and built
this country! A more spiritual theme, I can't imagine.
May it be everlasting.

Funny isn't it when we think of freedom, we say "free as
a bird". And yet my recent experience with wheel travel has taught me that the old turtle probably has a heck of
a lot more freedom than we ever thought.

Try some "turtle freedom" for yourself. Get you some wheels and GO. I highly recommend it. It will help you FOCUS and CELEBRATE THE GOOD.

Happy Holidays and happy trails!

Copyright 2002 Timothy Dexter Latus, All Rights Reserved.

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