Getting Back to Basics

When I was first diagnosed with lung cancer, I couldn’t contemplate any future or make any plans. As time has gone on, however, things have returned to normal and I am again thinking about what comes next and what our life will be like down the road a bit. I am feeling so well these days, it is hard to imagine that I could relapse at any time.

Yoko and I are making travel plans for this summer. She has to return to Japan to attend her mother’s seven year memorial service in August. It’s customary in Japan to remember loved ones who have passed on the third and seventh anniversary of their death. So, Yoko and Jessie are going to Tokyo together at the end of July.

We decided that Yoko, Moe and I will drive to Blue Ridge, Georgia the week prior to her departure. We’ll spend a few days together in a mountain cabin. Then, at the end of the week I will drive Yoko to Atlanta so she can catch a plane to Tokyo.

I’m going to return to Blue Ridge by myself while Yoko is gone and try to finish a screenplay I started years ago. A few weeks of uninterrupted effort is all I need to finally finish the job.
We decided to make a dry run and fly to Blue Ridge this weekend to check out cabins and become familiar with the place. When we return in the summer we’ll take the car, but for this short weekend trip we decided to fly.

I have to say I am glad I don’t travel by air as much as I once did. I can’t stand the hassle and intrusion of airport security, the mobs of people, the delays and stress of making connections, the screaming babies who are invariably seated near you, and the airlines’ consistently poor service. On this latest flight the “meal service” offered was a bag of salted peanuts. Yippee.
Lately I have become more acutely aware that our national life is changing and not for the better. Every day I wake up and things seem worse than they were before. Nothing is as it was and everything is more complex. Sometimes I wonder if simplifying and getting back to basics wouldn’t be better.

In Blue Ridge today there was a “classic car” show on Main Street. Most of the cars being shown were beautifully restored models from the 50’s and 60’s. I could look at the gleaming, chrome-plated engines and actually see how everything fit together and worked. I can’t say that if I look under the hood of a car today I could really tell what’s what.

The log cabin we are staying in has all the modern conveniences, but none of the clutter. We have no neighbors and at night it is perfectly peaceful. We’ve only been here two days and I already feel like we’ve stayed a week. Living in a rustic setting has made me nostalgic for the past.

Tonight I made a fire on the cabin porch and shared a bottle of wine with Yoko as the sun was setting. I was recalling the days as a kid when we chased fireflies, toasted marshmallows on an open fire, and lay in the grass to watch the night sky for shooting stars. We had no worries and life was simple.

I don’t often think about the past and what life was like when I was a child, but the uncertainty and complexity of the modern world has me yearning for those “good ole days”.
Our trip to Blue Ridge this weekend happily coincided not only with Mother’s Day, but Yoko and my 29th Wedding Anniversary and last night we watched a movie about divorce aptly called “It’s Complicated.” But really, it’s simple. Stay married!