It actually IS a journey.

My intention recently is to focus on my work to divert my mind from election news. Obviously, I don't always succeed, but I have managed to stick with it for at least a few hours every day for the last few weeks

The work right now consists mostly of reading my old journals. The last few days it's the period (late 1997 - spring 1999) when Jay and I were floundering in New York and moved to Nashville, which was a time of grinding uncertainty about the future, low lows and high highs. My journals are dense with anxiety about the direction of our career, endless speculation and hypothetical scenarios, picking apart every decision, every plan, every dream and aspiration. So the reading is every bit as emotionally taxing as the news. At least it is productive.

One thing we did during that time was rent an RV and take a road trip to Austin for SXSW. We took along two people, Suzanne, our neighbor and dear friend who performed with us many times and often took care of our four cats when we were away. And our friend Brian, who was a student at the time, a filmmaker and lighting designer who did lights for our shows at HERE. And we took all four cats with us. (That’s Honey on my lap in the photo.)

The trip was magical and joyful and weird and a lot of fun. (On the other hand, SXSW itself was mostly kind of awful — ah, those lows and highs.) Brian shot lots of video and made a film. This clip is from the drive down when we stopped at Suzanne’s parents’ home in Charlottesville for a night. A couple minutes in, there’s a bit of us singing one of my favorite songs we ever sang, “Far Side Banks of Jordan.” Terry Smith wrote the song, but Johnny and June made it famous. Sorry for the poor quality video, it’s from a very old VHS.

I don’t miss those days at all. But I miss those days.