My Own Private Idaho

Hi there,

So I’m in Idaho tonight.  I flew into Boise late last night and spent a lovely, low-key day with my sister-in-law and beautiful niece.  Driving to Twin Falls—my hometown—today, I saw tons of tumbleweeds during the two-hour drive and it made me laugh. I thought: if there is something to karma, coming back as tumbleweed would be the worst.  You’ve gotta be a total thug the first go round if that’s your kismet.

Over a casual pasta dinner, I caught up with my dad.  He told me about his near death experience rafting the middle-fork of the Salmon River this past summer.  We collectively commiserated over the recent Internet campaign of “adventure river trips.”  Here’s the short: A limited number of people can run the river each year so there is a raffle in which each rafting hopeful must participate.  What used to be a fairly local sport has exploded into an escapade that people in the likes of Alabama or Ohio, who have probably been inspired by the Wild at Heart series, have decided to put their name in the hat. The nation got wind of the raffle.  The downside is that the residents who live, breathe and deeply respect the river have about a 1 in 300 chance now to actually raft The Salmon for weeklong trips.  I’m obviously bias and politically incorrect but it chaps me to watch family and friends, purists who don’t hire outfitters or cooks to do their dirty work, loaf around in lakes all summer while scallywags from around the world come and crowd out their rivers. I guess it’s like everything that has quiet local appeal and beauty—the smallness is temporal. You can bottle the trip and the accompanying seductions but you can’t bottle the heart, which is what the locals bring. And now take to the local lakes.  Did I mention that this (Idaho) was also prime Indian real estate, back in the day?  I suppose they've got dibs on the axe grinding.

In other news, I told my dad about my Anglican 101 class and the countdown to my conversion. He was curious and genuinely interested. He's an elder of a large, reputable church in town, more conservative than my own. His openness to my journey is appreciated. We rented Flash of Genius tonight, which is a true story about an inventor who sued Ford Motor Co. for stealing his idea. It’s a compelling story, worth seeing. Injustice comes in all forms, fashions and intensities.

All in all it is so nice to be in Idaho, around a past –and essentially a self—I often feel so disconnected to in my fast-pace, cerebral and celebratory (not to be confused with celibate-ory, although if the shoe fits…) life in Nashville.  This is not a pining for greener grass.  We all have many sides to ourselves and inevitably one side gets the heavy.  It is just the nature of things, the Tao of reality, which I am resisting.  Much like the rest of the world discovering my home state, it’s merely a cost/benefit ratio. I guess if we are not living our lion's share in cost/deficit, it's all good.