Asphalt

I spend a lot of time on the road. Most of the time is spent behind the wheel of a motorized vehicle. some of the time is spent pedaling my Trek mountain bike or pounding the pavement with a run. Pavement, asphalt and me are synonymous terms. We congeal like ice in the arctic. I can stand on the asphalt in front of my mailbox and walk to the White House without ever having to leave the pavement. I can walk from the White House to Alaska with the same results. What would Lewis and Clark have thought of my odyssey? Asphalt, pavement, the road...ubiquitous...interlinked by an intricate web of arteries, veins, and capillaries that form the grand highway of human connectedness. I can no more avoid these man made links than a turtle can avoid its shell. They are there as long as we are there. When will it end? When will it come back to nature?

     Many years ago when I was 16, I held a part time job at a local market. I did not have a car, or even a drivers license so when I got out of school I had to find some way to get to work. I lived in a rural community. Typically I found a school bus that would take me to the town line and from there I would walk, run, or hitchhike the remaining few miles. Rain, sleet, or snow I would find myself on that road. One spring vacation I found myself without any transportation except my bike. It was 12 miles or so and I thought nothing about it. One day, however, since there was no school, I was asked to come in early. It was a dreary, foggy morning with a mist in the air. Since I could not see more than 20 feet in front of me I decided that it would be safer to walk the distance rather than risk being bowled over by some driver lost in the fog. By walking I reasoned that I could keep safely on the shoulder of the road. I started off and soon found myself walking over the causeway that ran across a reservoir a few miles from my house. The fog was so thick through here that I could not see a cars headlights until it was right on me. I kept to the shoulder hoping that the fog would lift. I was about halfway across when I heard a noise in front of me that sounded like someone breathing heavy. I stopped to listen, and scanned the immediate area in my front, but could see absolutely nothing but the grey...that interminable grey that seemed to me at this moment to have always been there...a permanent fixture never to be moved. I called out, "hello is somebody there?" but there was no reply, only the lapping of the water along the shore, and that breathing...or whatever it was in my front. I envisioned a monstrous kraken emerging from the water through the fog to take hold of me and carry me to a watery grave. I walked toward it, but it always seemed to be in front of me, though the noise now started to become more distant as if it were receding. After walking about a half a mile the fog began to lift as if by some hand of providence, and my eyes settled on a dark figure ambling forward. I determined that it was human, at least I think it was, but strangely shaped with a long head...or was it a long neck with no head? The fog was playing tricks with my mind. I could see its head, or neck turn around toward me never once losing its long stride. It then started to trot as if it were a horse on two legs, and finally disappeared into the mist. I never saw IT or HIM again.

                                                                   Kraken
                                                        
    It is strange how the human mind imagines things that cannot possibly exist. It has been almost three decades since since my my imaginary encounters with a phantom kraken, and a faceless man, yet I often dream about this experience. Why? I cannot say. Perhaps it is the innate superstitious spirit that is part of everyone no matter how you might consider yourself within the boundaries of reason and scientific thought. Maybe it is a defense mechanism against an overly bold spirit who might otherwise perform some impetuous act detrimental to existence? I don't know. Only the road knows...the asphalt that takes me on my journey forward where Krakens and faceless men exist...if only in the dream state.