After many years of blogging, and consistent with my desire to move toward retirement, we have ended the Insights blog. Thanks to Doug Bedell for his years of blog support.

My Shrinking World

Posted on February 23, 2010
Filed Under The Writing Life | Leave a Comment

Just a week or so ago I was thinking about some travel.  I have friends in Missouri I haven’t seen in ages, and I’d really like to get back to Salt Lake City.  I used to live a few hours away and I always enjoyed that city.  With my current writing project wrapping up in a month or so and only some vague outlines of where the next one will be, it seemed like the perfect time for a road trip.

Then I spent a good chunk of last Saturday in the ER.  Why is not important.  Suffice it to say that until things get sorted out, alone on the road a thousand miles from home and loved ones seems suddenly less attractive.

I think about my situation and can’t help but draw some contrasts.  My son is studying in Europe and as I write this he is between semesters and on a month-long adventure:  Istanbul, Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leipzig, and more.  With my money and his rail pass, his world is very large indeed…thousands of miles.  My mother died of Alzheimer’s disease, and in the last year of her life her world was measured in feet… a very few feet.

I intend to rage against my shrinking world.  Bold talk from a guy who a few days ago was hoping to have the chance to make the two-mile trip back home.  I wonder if I’ll have the courage to venture far from the illusory safety of a shrunken world? – Dennis Owen

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