BOOM!

A trip to Tennessee always has more than a few surprises in store for the casual shamanic traveler.....

Last year I spent two definitive weeks in the state of Tennessee, a journey down into the Earth as deep as I could get it. I quested here, spending two weeks by myself playing the borders- right along the Tennessee River and into north Mississippi- old Indian mound sites, haunted oaks, friendly birds, creepy back-woods Rednecks with a sudden sage like suprises.........

Or, it could take the form of a large White Pickup Truck, a LWPT, crossing the center line, clear as day, and Oh-Shit-Yes- still coming into your lane, the one you were just now enjoying, alone, and no, this large truck is not swerving or slowing down. At all. I had a choice- or I had no choice because instead of turning the wheel, I took the hit head on.

BOOM! I mean, seriously folks, if you've never been hit head on by a truck going 65 miles per hour, you haven't lived. You might be lucky to live. For the long second or two before the laws of physics set their feet down, I sort of had a cloud of unreality hanging around the whole thing, like it was a dream and that truck coming towards me was simply an image, a notion- even an abstraction.........

BOOM! Second time in the last 4 years I've been totaled, head on, by country folk, coming into my lane from the left out of nowhere, by a white pickup truck, no shit. I climb out of the smoking wreck of a particular Accord- cited, strangely, in the very last post previous of this very blog. That morning, just before dawn, two owls hooted in the darkness, just outside my window. Hooting together- dissonant, haunting.

BOOM! So, my poor baby is full of white smoke a la airbag, and I'm coughing and checking all my parts, and this fellow from the truck is all smiles, completely unhurt. He's kidding around with the state troopers while she's being hauled away- the woman hit the windshield, hard, taken away, all braced up, on a stretcher, bleeding.

I hope she's o.k. I spent the afternoon in the McNairy Hospital, no brokens. It's a good thing I hit him straight on- strange because it turns out I was on a levee and if I had gone off the narrow state two laner I would have gone rolling over down a very steep- almost straight down- embankment. Way down. As it was, my rear tires were on the very edge- half a foot more and I would have gone down, seriously not-fucking-with you down, brother, to almost certain catastrophe.

Further South last month, I noted that the Big White Pickup truck is a living symbol of Florida Manhood, and not in service to the highest sense of that phrase. Three weeks later................kind of strange. Are they getting even?

BOOM! Make sure you've got airbags, good ones. But, if all things fail in the war against all such disasters- and that truck is really, really, going to hit you- stop for a minute and enjoy it- that direct moment of impact is as enlightened as you may ever get- for one timeless instant before the 'Oh Fuck' kicks in..........

Count your blessings. Really. 'Coz, BOOM.

You never know when that pickup is going to come right at you-