“What are you after, Budd?”
“Freedom.”
“What will you do when you have your freedom?”
“I’ll be a philosopher.”
“What do you Need to get it?”
“Nothing. I have it right now.”
“What is freedom?”
“If you have to ask that, you don’t know what it is.”
“You know, we met a nice Native gentleman in the national park. He was selling a book of poetry.”
“Oh, did he self-publish?”
“No, it was just a stack of papers stapled together. How’s your poetry coming along?”
“About the same.”
“Oh, I see. And how’s work?”
“It’s work. Whenever we do a risk assessment on one of our dangerous kids, they ask us who the kid identifies as, a follow, a leader, or an outcast. I smile, they usually say he’s an outcast. I guess I identify with being an outcast too.”
“Oh, I’ve always identified with being a leader. When I was in high school, I could go from clique to clique and fit in anywhere. The same is true for me in my dean job. I’m getting a raise and moving to Northern California. Where are you going, Andy?”
“Nowhere and everywhere.”
“And where is that?”
“Far away from people.”
“How will you live?”
“In a van. I won’t pay taxes. I won’t go to meetings. I won’t talk to anybody. I’ll live in the wild.”
“That’s really immature. What about marriage? What about kids?”
“That’s where I trust in God. If it be his will, it be his will.”
“But you can’t just let God take care of things for you.”
“But I can. Look how good my life has turned out so far.”
Lots to think about there. I don’t want to be a dean, but I don’t want to live in a van, either. I appreciate silence and stillness, but I don’t want to live like a hermit.
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I understand. I often times wonder where I might go and what I might do, if I lived differently. Thanks for reading Priscilla!
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