Skip to main content

Stay or Stray

Friends,

I love road trips. New sights, fun discoveries, eclectic experiences and a futile attempt to reach the horizon all play a part in the thrill. While anticipation builds, I find a competing distaste for leaving people and places behind counter-balances my thought process (hate would be too strong a word). As I prepare to hit the road for a few days, I’ve been trying to name this feeling. “Call of the wild” or “call of the open road” miss the conflicting desire to stay. “Resistance to change”, on the other hand, overstates the internal conflict. My search for an appropriate moniker has left me with a short list of candidates.

I could call this feeling “the clash” —you know, after the British band that sang “should I stay or should I go?”. Then again that reference might be too obscure (and it certainly shows my age). I was also thinking of calling it the “Sarah impulse”, after Lot’s wife who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back on the home she was leaving behind. Again, perhaps a bit of an inside reference. Then it hit me. “Stay or stray”. Surely such a powerful alliteration must already be taken? It is, of course, but it has several meanings (one surrounding faithfulness, another to do with approaches to learning), which leaves the door open to an additional interpretation. Unlike the fight or flight response (with the added “freeze” to give us another option in stressful situations), stay or stray has no single shared interpretation. Before settling on a name, I think I’ll stray to Dunkin’ and get me some food for thought.



Happy Friday!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Donut Doodle Dandy

Dear Members and Constituents, In trying to figure-out Wednesday’s cool-looking Google Doodle ( Jorge Luis Borges’ 112 th birthday ), I stumbled across a list of Google Doodles you’ll never see. This, and a Rockies game later that day, were sufficient inspiration to get my head spinning around what other doodles Google might never noodle? I’m sure you’ll probably have a few ideas of your own, but I was able to come-up with a couple. How about a former Colorado Rockies player whose unfortunate encounter with a moth put him in the news this week? The Matt Holliday doodle might look something like this… Another item which, surprisingly enough, has not been made into a doodle are donuts. Although I was slightly taken aback to find this delicious pastry has not been featured, after the initial disappointment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and take a stab at one (perhaps Google can use it next year for national donut day )… or to celebrate Greek police having “ blown a ho...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Dozen Rules to Live By

Friends, When it comes to the big questions, there are far too many platitudes, truisms, cliches and BS. Bookshelves are lined with so much advice, you’d think we would have answered them all by now. So, why do people keep doing it? I couldn’t tell you. Whatever the reason, here’s one more exploration to add to the interminable list. I’ve left God out of this post, so these “rules” should come in handy whether you believe life has meaning, or you think purpose is just our prefrontal cortex’s way of sabotaging our limbic system. And, since donuts come in dozens, it felt fitting that my list just happens to have twelve rules.   Do it! (what are you waiting for?). Life sometimes feels like a dress rehearsal. So much time spent preparing for the future, there’s little time left to actually live life. Habit, routine and inertia have a way of filling the day. Try something new, who knows, you might enjoy it. Don’t overthink it. But, what to do? Give-in to a...
2 comments
Read more

Anthropomorphic Donuts

Friends, The human form is the measure by which we frame the world around us. We are, after all, most familiar with (and full of) ourselves. Take the friendly elevator at Shift, the coworking environment where I sometimes migrate to change scenery. It’s no more or less efficient than other elevators, yet, the illusion of a smiley face created by the card reader’s reflection makes the space just a tad more endearing. The elevator could, for all I know, be an evil machine plotting my demise. Nah! Who am I kidding, it can’t be. What with its symmetric “eyes” and understated grin. Nothing so cute could possibly be waiting for the right moment to plunge me to my grave from the top floor. Could it? Another example: receiving two thumbs up is universally accepted as a sign of having done a great job. Unless, of course, if it’s coming from a koala bear. With two opposable thumbs in each hand, anything short of four thumbs has room for improvement. Which leads me to donuts. Last week’s expedit...
2 comments
Read more