living

Some of my famiyl came up to see me this week and deliver some much-needed things I had to leave behind. I'd been living on the bare minimum the past two weeks and now all of a sudden I have an apartment packed with my things. We also spent a lot of wonderful time together; I did more things with them in those 37 hours than we used to do in a while week.

The past two weeks have been something of a lesson in materialism for me. My kitchen was sparse, my living room was wide open and my den was a hole. I had none of the things we all think we have to have to survive in our homes, and I did all right. I wasn't living on a pond like Thoreau, but I was certainly "living deliberately," and I liked it.

But it's nice to have a television, a desk, a chair, a bookshelf, and some other things I've added to the place to make it more livable. It's good being able to sit in something besides a camping chair for once. I can only imagine that my family has much room back home now that most of my stuff is gone.

I miss them all, I really do. But this is the natural order of things. A boy grows up with his father, mother, sisters and brothers and becomes a man. He then leaves that home to venture out beyond the familiar to seek what the world has to offer him. At least, that's what I think it is.

There had been this belief that I'd find independence out here, but that's gone now. Independence is an illusion. Yeah, I have my own place, but could I afford it if not for the job I have? Yeah, I got up here, but I needed help both from my family and the U.S. Interstate Highway system to make the trip.

The fact is, I'm just as dependent as everyone else. It's just that others depend on me a whole lot more than they once did.