When I first told a friend about our idea for the trip she said "That’s crazy – but I’m still jealous." I laughed and gave it a little thought. Sure the idea is a little out there. What kind of responsible adult quits their job to take a trip down the Mississippi River with his wife? We’ve had more than our share of stressful years recently, and since I work in what amounts to a real life Dilbert cartoon taking a break from work seemed like the best thing to do to retain my sanity and sense of purpose. Much of the stress was self-induced – I finished one college degree and began another while studying for and acquiring my CISSP, PMP, and ITIL certifications. Life had become a routine of working, studying, sleeping, and trying to find time to fit the family into all of that. There’s something wrong about having to fit your family into your life, instead of your life into your family.
So why the Mississippi? I could put in lots of stuff about its storied past as a waterway for Native Americans and the settlers who came after, or spin yarns about the majesty and beauty of the landscape, or even claim that I’ve always wanted to be Huck Finn. None of that would be true. We picked the Mississippi because it is there, we think we can do it, and it will serve our purpose of getting away from the cliff edge we’ve been riding and moving a little closer to center. In truth, though, Huck Finn might have a little more to do with it than I think. One morning a couple of weeks ago I’d had a particularly frustrating morning at work, and after leaving a meeting that was so staggeringly useless and time wasting that planted a migraine in my skull I decided to take a little me time and toss around the Internet for a bit. On some web page that is now forgotten I came across this quote from Samuel Clemens:
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
The words hit me with unusual force. Larisa and I had been planning to do just that for quite a while. The initial dream was a round the world sailing trip but life, health, and finances suggested that we’d be better off doing the Great Loop. So that became the new dream, with the hope that we could make the trip less of a financial hit by taking me taking a leave of absence from my job for the length of the trip. After all, an unpaid leave of absence from my job is a supposed benefit – it’s listed between Health Insurance and Life Insurance. But my boss didn’t see it that way - and such is life. I sat at my desk and thought about all of this, plus all of the things that have been cropping up to make life’s road a little rougher and decided that it was time to do something before I burnt out completely and became a zombie-like automaton, living only for the paycheck and the weekend.
I got up from my desk and went outside to call Larisa, the plan to do the Mississippi River more of a violent reaction to tedium and a sense of futility than anything else. At the top of my mind I figured Larisa would call me crazy, then spend a few minutes putting my brain back on track – if ever there was a touchstone for me that embodied calm and sanity it’s my wife. In the back of my brain, and even deeper in my heart, I knew she’d leap at the chance to do something so amazing. I outlined the idea, knowing nothing more than it would take a couple of months and that we’d need to buy a canoe. She didn’t hesitate – she just said yes.
So maybe we’re both crazy. Or maybe we’re just taking this opportunity to explore, dream, and discover. Whatever the answer is, we’ll find it somewhere near the center.
