This is a picture that my daughter took from the window of our Dodge Caravan…..cruising down the highway at 70 miles an hour….out West….out West….out West.

“From the window”…..

Out the window…..

What was I doing when she was taking the picture?

Probably driving….thinking about where we were going….trying, like my father used to tell me, to “keep it between the fenceposts”.

Keep it between the fenceposts…..

The picture is from a trip we took to look at some land that I inherited when my father passed away….land “out West”…..

Good grief….it’s beautiful.

I wonder how many scenes like this I’ve seen in my life….a lot of times through the window of a moving vehicle….glanced at and appreciated….but never really completely absorbed….because I was moving….trying to “keep it between the fenceposts”?

What am I missing?

What am I missing because I’m pondering “what I’m missing”?

What am I missing because I concentrate too hard on the cost of movement…..and not the adventure?

If it was up to me, I’d never miss an opportunity to either say or respond positively to the short and potent admonition “LET’S GO!!”.

I would be braver….and less worried about things.

Of course, that’s a hypothetical “if it was up to me”, anyway.

(Of course, it is up to me. Who else would it be up to? It’s up to me.)

My reality is one of nervousness and marginal preparation….wondering when the car will blow up or the money will disappear or some weird glandular condition will strand us in the middle of the Badlands.

I’m kidding about the glandular condition.

You can’t worry about things like that.

That would be nuts.

There’s a surfer named Eddie Aikau who passed away a while back, back in the late 70’s.paddling to get help for a group of sailors he was a member of who’d become stranded when their boat was disabled.

He was a pretty legendary and important figure in Hawaii….a surfer and lifeguard who saved over 500 people.

He told the people on the boat that he’d paddle back to the island of Lanai on his surfboard and get them some help.

They never were able to find him.

Lost at sea.

Anyway….the saying, after his death, was “Eddie would go”.

Dropping into a big wave….or saving his friends….”Eddie would go”.

“Eddie would go”.

I don’t often bump up against dire situations.

I don’t have reason to paddle out into the deep blue and unknown.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to save anyone.

I guess that I’m like everyone I know….wondering if I could be brave when I needed to be.

I should respond more favorably when the words on the table or hanging in the air are “let’s go”.

What a fine thing it would be if, when my time was done, people could say about me, “Peter would go”.

That would be pretty cool.

“Peter would go”….I like the sound of that.

I should go more.