Of Highways, Happiness, and a Van Named Townes

I have a confession to make: I never much liked what we've come to call "work".

Oh, don't get me wrong; I don't mind real work, the kind that leaves you either physically exhausted, emotionally satisfied, or both, at the end of the day. But I never did well slogging along in a drone's like existence, simply churning out more because the insatiable demand of a consumerist society demand it. I always felt I was investing in someone else's happiness rather than my own. Thing is, I never saw a way out. The alternative to that, our society likes to tell us, is sloth, and that's a bad thing.

So, door #1 = drone. Door #2 = drudgery.

Thank goodness for door #3!

In the past few months, I've had a lot of folks directing me to door #1. Better to spend your life doing something you hate, as long as the paycheck clears, than to truly dream, aspire, and soar to better heights. Although I still have a ways to go in this new paradigm, I am increasingly glad that I didn't pay attention to conventional wisdom.

The money's been good; the jobs are steady. They were always steady, the problem is they were too far out and offered at too low a rate for me to head out there. So, in figuring out that I am losing money on the return trip and staying out for stretches at a time, I am saving a good deal of money; in the hundreds in this week alone, a week that saw me working every day of the week at decent rates.

I decided something on the road, though: before I travel further, the van needs a name. I've never been much on naming vehicles, but this one is not only my transportation, but my home and companion. And will be until I can get things together enough to bring the whole family on the road, or at least on select road trips (more on that; stay tuned).

The van's name is Townes. If you know me well, it needs no explanation. If you don't, it's named after Townes Van Zandt, a fellow who occupies the upper echelon of singers/storytellers. Townes wrote the classic "Pancho and Lefty", a ballad that I feel is wholly appropriate to anyone living on the road. But I digress.

I'm so glad I decided to find door #3. It's a whole lot nicer this side of it than I ever found it on the far side of the other two!