Post-mortem

This photo can be captioned in a multitude of ways, for a smattering of different people:

1. Cate and Aaron Ryba: I think it went over well, and thanks to you for the opportunity to participate and for filling the room. In the end, the road trip proved a perfect subject for my Talk20 presentation, if only just for my own selfish purpose of reflection. It is now exactly one year from that cross-country epic and I find myself back where we started our journey, in South Carolina. I would have never believed it if you had told it to me then. I think next Talk20, though, I’ll present about something a little less self-centered and a little more relevant to mankind in general, the future of art and the legacy that modern-day artists will leave to posterity. The subject I am referring to, of course, is the Genius of R. Kelly.

2. Dad: Just pretend I didn’t already write a blurb on the actual, concrete interpretation of this image. You’ll notice in the background your two eldest children in celebration. Pretend just for a moment that we are not celebrating Dwayne Wade and the Miami Heat’s NBA Finals Triumph, but instead, you and the inescapable but comforting fact that you are our dad. And in the foreground, I am telling a very large and distinguished group of people of your many charms and talents, namely your industriousness, in the very old sense of the word, and your adorable attraction to small gadgets that can do all things at once, a telltale sign of your enthusiasm for progress. Happy Father’s Day.

3. Howie: Can we please take another road trip? I long to be in the wagon with you, moving in complete harmony, checking each other’s blind spots, one of us holding the wheel while the other searches for Mama’s Gun or Yes, Virginia, waking up in places we’ve never heard of or with friends we’ve just met, the road unraveling in front of us endlessly. Oh, wifey, how I miss you.

4. David: I think what you were trying to tell me on the phone is that you love me, and at first, I was a little disappointed that you did not. I realize we rarely say that to one another, perhaps because it would be “gay,” in the politically incorrect Kevin Smith usage of the word. But I realized when we hung up that that is indeed a part of what you were saying, but not nearly its whole. To love is easy; to understand is divine.

5. All of you out there, if you’re listening: What this was, really, was an event which gave the presenter 20 seconds to talk about each projected slide in a pre-selected set of 20 slides under a specific theme. I chose my two-month cross-country road trip and showed snapshots from 20 of the 30 plus stops we made along the way. Each picture was complemented by tidbits from my journal. It was an interesting exercise for me. It is the first time I have read publicly from my journal, and also the first time I have ever done any kind of editing to it for a larger audience. This particular caption read as follows: “We watched the last game of the NBA Finals at a motel. The Heat won the championship, appropriate in what scientists are saying is the hottest summer in 2,000 years. My brother and I smoked on the porch and he tried not to cry. He wanted to be in Miami for the spectacle. I was just happy to see the Heat win something before Miami is blown away.”

In other news, bartending is fun.  And deviled eggs, despite the name, are really quite heavenly.