We were young and recently engaged. I had to move from Boston to Ann Arbor, and all my worldly possessions fit into the trunk and back seat of a rental car. I don’t remember the model, but I know it was white. It wasn’t a large car. Details have escaped into the ether, but I was driven by the soul purpose to be with my fiancée, soon to be wife. In those days sleep and food deprivation of an almost Lindberghian degree seemed negligible. Google maps tells me it’s a twelve-hour drive, but back then the speed limit in Pennsylvania was still 55 so it had to’ve been more than that. By myself, with little money (how did I pay for that rental car? Probably credit card, borrowing against the future) I drove all day—or was it night? I seem to recall arriving in the afternoon.
People are capable of great endurance feats, but they get a bit trickier as you age. I like to think they’re compensated for by increased mental powers. It takes time—many years—to learn how to be in the world. To learn, as Morpheus indicates, which rules can be bent, and which broken. If you pay attention you can see that there are events, incidents, not easily explained. We influence the world as the world influences us. And our minds influence our bodies just as our bodies influence our minds. We seem to enjoy drawing sharp distinctions where fuzzy lines are more natural. As I think back on my move to the Midwest, it seems to me that courage and conviction ran strong, despite the unlikeliness of success.
From Ann Arbor my wife and I moved to Edinburgh with, again, very little money and nothing but hopes to keep us going. You see, when you grow up in a poor family there are no buffers. Yet Edinburgh became a reality and after the Ph.D., still with little money, we managed a transAtlantic move to a job that proved as unreliable as the usual support systems for the poor. Once again we found ourselves making yet another low-budget move across the miles. We move to find our futures. Wisconsin became our home for a decade and a half before the search for work brought us back east again. Moves are filled with hope. If we were convinced things would always be the way they are, why would we bother to move on? Moving shows just how optimistic we can be. Without hope, why would we ever move?