Any Road

Listen while you read:  https://youtu.be/mFblhcQjKeY

Oh, I've been traveling on a boat and a plane
In a car, on a bike, with a bus and a train
Traveling there and traveling here
Everywhere in every gear

But, oh, Lord, we pay the price
With a spin of a wheel and the roll of a dice
Oh, yeah, you pay your fare
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there

And I've been traveling through the dirt and the grime
From the past to the future through the space and the time
Traveling deep beneath the waves
In watery grottoes and mountainous caves

But, oh, Lord, we've got to fight
With the thoughts in the head, with the dark and the light
No use to stop and stare
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there

~  George Harrison

This song, written in 1988, was released posthumously on Brainwashed in 2002, one year after Harrison's death. Unable to finish the recording, his son Dhani completed it. Dhani says that the inspiration came when he and his father were on a beach in Hawaii and came upon a sign: If the wind blows, you can always adjust your sails, but if you don't know where you're going, then any road will take you there. (Other sources suggest the inspiration came from a scene in Alice in Wonderland.)

As I was working on this post, my friend Nora posted one of those little Facebook challenges. It was Lonely Planet's list of the 100 Best Cities in the World. Nora's been to 27 of them. I counted only 21 for me. (Fair enough, Nora is older than I, so I have time to catch up!) As grateful as I am for the traveling I've done, my age keeps reminding me that time is running out. Could I possibly visit 79 cities in the time I have left?

But it's not really the cities that I want to see (although it would be really sad if I died never having been to Paris). While museums and art galleries and restaurants and taverns/pubs/bars/saloons/taprooms/roadhouses are great, I am drawn to the landscapes. I want to see the rivers and canyons, the mountains and mesas, the forests and glens, the deserts and valleys, the oceans and fiords, the glaciers and rainforests. I want to see the planet.

Behind my computer, spread out on this table, are maps and tour books. There is a road trip being planned, one that will take me places I have never been. I will travel by plane, by car, and by ferry. If I plan it right, I might travel by balloon, by gondola, by boat, and who knows, maybe by zipline.  (I have ziplined before in Costa Rica. I got "stuck" 20' out from the landing deck! It was a bit scary.)

I've been traveling on a wing and a prayer
By the skin of my teeth, by the breadth of a hair
Traveling where the four winds blow
With the sun on my face, in the ice and the snow

See what you can of the world, while you can. Any road will take you there.