So this is where it starts...

It all starts with closing a few doors for the last time.

We hit the road tomorrow, the streets, whatever.
And soon after that, I better get moving too.

Over the next few months it appears I will get to experience damn near the entire country.
It's just time I guess.
Have to get home somehow.
And I have to be whole when I arrive.

Weighing my options I decided to drive.
And to take 4 cameras with me.
2 Nikon FE-8 cameras - these used to belong to a vietnam war photographer named "lucky" who blew is head off with a shotgun...I need to finally put them to good use again.
A Canon EOS SLR  - I took this to Jamaica when I was pregnant with Marina and took the photographs I am the most proud of.  (May they rest in peace.)
And a digital cam corder I have had for a loooong while and never used.

And I am going to doucument what I see.
And all those people and places that choose to speak to me.

There will never be another "opportunity" to see what I can choose to see now.

I once said in jest that "life would be swell if I could live in my car."
There is the weight of our things,
and then the weight that comes from fearing their loss.
It is probable that the fear of that loss is far worse than never having an accumulation of "things" to begin with.

Reminds me of my dad...how he so often quoted William Wordsworth's "The World is Too Much With Us."   http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww317.html

Easter Sunday in Jamaica.
I went to church in  in the back of a vacant store with all manner of wandering goats, dogs, and such. 
No sanctuary, much less a gym or library. 
(My god, they have churches with espresso stands now!)

But on that Easter Sunday, I saw true joy. 
Since then I have been in both posh and tall buildings finding no joy there. 
And not too much reality either.
Life though, is about the balances we strike.  Right?

No one is judging, whether there is a right to judge or not.
But it seems to me that when a country can make as much war as we do,
we should also be able to take care of our neighbors here at home. 
We can not either save or rule the world.
But we can take care of this coutry and its citizens.
If we wanted to more than other "things."

Compare defense spending to education or workforce training. 
Appalling.
This system is something else.
And if you don't can not work it that system,
or just dont think it right to try, your done.

There are a lot of people walking around feeling done.
I'm first cousin to being one of those people.

And I know I am not alone.

Stephen Covey says that we need to "feed opportunities and starve problems."

Here I go then...

I am broke.
Why not just accept it and start hanging out with the others who are broke too?
And if it is true that the best way to forget about your problems is to focus on someone elses....
than maybe I better see how bad it can get,  and how close we each are to that reality.

Not so much that we all are going to find ourselves destitute in the new year, but that we each are closer than we might assume to someone who is sinking and is done asking for help.

It's these people I plan to see, and more importantly listen to.

And then report back to you.
Hope-fully.