You have lots of time to think when you're driving

I'm driving on the 405 yesterday and as I'm passing LAX a plane slides over my head so close I thought I felt the jet wash. A million other cars are an inch from me and we're all doing 80 and our cell phones are chiming and I'm listening to the radio news reporter describing a fire in the Anaheim Hills. A minute later the road curves and there's the smoke plume and it's billowing and I know there are hundreds of people evacuating and hundreds more fighting the fire. The lady on the radio is talking about freezing river rocks to cool your single malt scotch and how most of our coffee beans are over-roasted. In the time it takes me to drive a few miles on this particular highway I know some thousands of people have flown into or out of that airport I just passed. And I know that my son is in the air somewhere, too, somewhere between Kuwait and Germany maybe. I believe that he will be home the next day and we will see him again after the seven longest months in our lives, and I am full of joy but afraid to feel it.

Life is beautifully complex.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Welcome home, son of my friend. Thank you for all you are doing on behalf of the rest of us. Your father has made it very clear to his friends that your service to others is something we should never take for granted. Wishing you and your family all the best.
March 12, 2007 at 10:34 PM
Anonymous said…
Barry - ditto the anonymous comment above. Please pass along a hearty "Thank You" to your son for his service to our great land and its people. I hope to meet the young man one day and tell him myself. All gave some. Some gave all. Let us never forget!
March 13, 2007 at 2:38 PM
Anonymous said…
Barry, your blog is excellent. I didn't realize we had so much in common (beside our good looks, that is). I echo the above comments regarding your son's service to our country. You have to wonder if some of the people here are deserving of our outstanding military. I also thought your comments about slavery were interesting. I am reading a book about the Barbary Wars...brought about in part because the Arab north African city-states were pillaging US and European merchant ships for decades and selling many of the sailors into the African slave trade (which pre-dated the European, and obviously the US, trades by, oh, about thousands of years). This is often forgotten in the history books.

Keep up the great work. When are you going to run for public office?
March 13, 2007 at 3:34 PM
Barry Martin said…
Thanks to you all for your kind words and your ongoing support.
March 15, 2007 at 7:14 AM
Anonymous said…
this seems like a piece of your memoirs that i will assemble much later and publish and hopefully become very rich off of.
March 16, 2007 at 12:04 AM
Barry Martin said…
No fair getting rich if I'm too old to sponge off you. Start writing that book now...
March 16, 2007 at 7:25 AM
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