Boys of Summer book Entry #53

Park Number Six (of 30) at Turner Field

Atlanta 10, Boston 4
WP: M. Hampton (3-8)   LP: D. Lowe (6-8)

Side note: Oakland FINALLY gets over on the Giants, 9-6.

July 5, 2004 - Dad
Prince William Forest, VA

I woke up at 7 a.m. to a beautiful cool morning in Charlotte.  The day is off to a good start – all my laundry is washed and Barb has sorted and folded it for easy packing (thanks, Barb!). After a breakfast of pancakes and fruit on the deck, we pack up and say "thank you and good bye." Our trip today will be about 350 miles before side trips. 

We make a side trip to Durham to visit Duke University, Bob’s favorite college basketball team. As it turns out, this is the very day Coach K announces he will not accept the job as coach of the Lakers, so there’s a bit of media buzz. We also make a stop at Costco for lunch and gas. 

On the road again, the end of a three day holiday means heavy traffic and pockets of slow driving. We are unable to connect with a "friendly" in the area so we make camp at Prince William Forest State Park. Bob needs to go to Kinko’s to get online with his computer. We finally locate one in Alexandria – an hour-plus later we stop at Wendy’s for dinner then it’s back to the park for the night.

July 5, 2004 - Bob
Prince William Forest, VA

Barb and Naiden were the most kind and gracious hosts I could imagine. They are sweet, funny and very, very warm. It’s so wonderful connecting with old friends. There’s most definitely something special about that connection -- the depth of it -- the resonance of it.

The game was great yesterday.

Later...

This trip is an affirmation of life, love, faith and friendship. To reconnect with old friends, to make new ones, to experience and re-experience things is amazing. It’s a celebration of life and all the things that we’ve done and will do. It’s so important to let friends know you love them, so important to step out of our “easy lives” and reconnect to our authentic lives.

What do I mean by that? I mean asking what we are doing here on this planet. If at our core, what we want is to be happy -- then our focus on work and money is out of balance. Not that work and money can’t be part of being happy, but they are not the absolute facilitators of happiness. Happiness can and is achieved in so many other ways that don’t cost money or require work or achievement, but rather, ask us to let go and allow time -- not “make” time because we can’t do that. Allowing time for things like sitting around with loved ones is key. Just sitting and watching a sunset, a wave crash or maybe throwing a ball back and forth holds simple perfection.

Why are we here on this planet?

What for?

Perhaps...