The Cycle of Life

The headline above  is a compromise.  I am making this post from the state of Georgia where I laid my head down to sleep late last night.  Originally, I envisioned that this post would be only about my travel from Bayou Lafourche to the Atlantic Coast yesterday, a grueling trek for a variety of reasons that left me far too tired last night to make this post.  Anyway, something else happened here in the state of Georgia yesterday that changed things and has changed what will be put in this post.

All Good Things Must Come To An End

Yes, my dear Jimbauxlings, I did use that same-subheadline in the prior post, and it has generated much new meaning since then, and not just for what happened here in Georgia, which was a weird coincidence.

I left the farm and kissed the bayou goodye yesterday morning.  Upon arriving here after some  fast driving, I learned that  such fast driving caused the death of someone from back home close to my age along a highway near where I had passed at about the same time. (Read about it here, if you must.)  I didn’t know him, but his mother and my father worked together, and he was also a student of my father.  It is so sad.

Hope and Change

It was two years ago yesterday that Barack Obama took the oath of office as the President of the United States after being swept in after believing in the “audacity of hope.”  I didn’t get swept up in the euphoria of all of that, but I also definitely wasn’t an Obama-hater.  Since then, Obama and I have, ourselves, both grown and changed.  He has become more pragmatic-but-still-hopeful, and I have finally embraced hope.   I’m not talking about the specifics of any of his ideological platform; I am, rather, referring to the overall concept of hope, something I have been forced, thankfully, in the last six-months (or more) to address.

I saw a bumper sticker that said “Take America Back” as I was driving through Georgia yesterday, and I had never seen that before.  It reminded me of Bill Maher’s response to that, saying he wanted to “take America forward.”  I agree.

Whataburger!

The first stop was, of course, at the Whataburger in Gulfport, Mississippi!  You folks who live outside of Whataburger-land need to get to one when you’re  in this area.  There are none  in New Orleans and  none in bayouland, but all other land areas around do!

I had not been out of southeastern Louisiana since August, the last time I ate  a hamburger, and the last time I had eaten at a Whataburger was in July in southeastern Texas.

I do know some people from Texas who have moved away from Texas and find the need to eat at ‘W’ when they visit back home!

In case  you’re  wondering, I did spend a little bit of time looking  for KCS action, but I didn’t  have much time.  I went get gasoline, went check out the yard, and then got  out of town.  Sorry, no shots!

Alabama

I did not stop at all in the state of Alabama.  I did not have time.  Here’s what I saw, though:

The drive across the Florida panhandle until I turned north at Tallahassee was long, boring, and miserable as usual.  I stopped for gasoline  in Tallahassee, and then I went inside for a candy bar and a soda, but two of the workers there were kind enough to take a smoke break right in front of the entrance to the store right before I had to go inside.  Thanks, you jerks.  Since my truck was already parked there and since I was in a hurry anyway, I was too weak-willed to take my business elsewhere.

Georgia

The sun set as I approached the Georgia state line on highway 319.  I stopped to eat the Zaxby’s in Jesup, which was the same place I ate  when I took this route in April 2009, which brings us to the other news of the day.

Acceptance Is Virtue

All good things must come to an end.  I’m not sure of the idea that “everything happens for a reason,” but there has been plenty lately to lend credence to that idea.  Here I am today on a theme of hope and change as I am learning that acceptance can lead to hope and change.  It’s weird the way that lives of people intersect.  An odd coincidence happened yesterday.

I mentioned that I had been here in April 2009, and it was on that trip that I went to the Atlanta area to visit Aunt Vivian, my grandfather’s older sister who was 92 years old and living alone  and in great shape.  It was a wonderful visit, and it was to be the only time that I would visit her as an adult.

I was hoping that my additional presence here in the Peach State would lead to more visits, but it was not to be.  I was hoping to get some pictures yesterday in the state of Georgia to post here, but it was  not to be.  Instead, though, I’m posting these pictures that I took in Georgia in 2009.

I spent the night there that April.  In the morning, she showed me how to eat Cheerios “Uncle Richard style,” meaning to continue adding small amounts of Cheerios, rather than a full bowl, in the milk to make it stay fresh and crispy!

Uncle Richard had  just been there a few weeks earlier on his way to South Carolina for a reunion with his military pals.  Now, Uncle Richard has been sick lately.

Gratitude

I’ve lost some family members in recent months, and some others are not so well.  I’m sad to lose them, but upon hearing of Tante Vivian’s death, I couldn’t help but be overcome with a tremendous sense of gratitude that I was able to visit her  in 2009.  Since the beginning of the fall, I have been making a great effort — and having great success — in developing my sense of gratitude, and that has led to hope and positive change, which I needed more than I realized.

Tante Vivian spent more than a half-century as a widow.  Above is a telegram from Uncle René in Rome offering “deepest sympathies.”  Uncle René himself died a few months ago in October.

Here’s Tante Vivian and her husband and their first child.

These are photographs (the two above) I made from her photo album, pictures of pictures, if you will.

My host here on the coast in Georgia told me that she liked that I honored and valued the older family members that I have, unlike most young people my age, she says.

Letting Go

I appreciated hearing her (my host) say that, but since I have visited Aunt Vivian, and since we have had more deaths in the family in the last 15 months, and since I’ve had some other life-changing experiences in being forced to face some personal demons more recently, I’ve learned the valuable virtue of acceptance.  I’ve learned that attachment to things of the past is okay but only until the point that the attachment robs you of a future.  For the first time in my life, I’ve finally found the hope, faith, and optimism to truly embrace the future!  I did mention that Jimbaux’s Journal was to develop into something of an illustrated gratitude journal from yours truly.  I hope that you have benefited from it and enjoyed it.  Please don’t forget that the best way to receive site updates is to join the Facebook fan page.

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

It is so true in ways that I couldn’t realize only a few months ago.

Embrace hope.  It’s your only hope.

All for now.

Jimbaux