jeff shuck

I’m on a flight from Dallas to Chicago — the flight was delayed, then we got re-routed, then the pilot announced that the air conditioning doesn’t work, then subsequently mentioned that the air is out because of an air purifier malfunction, which is also forcing us to fly 10,000 feet lower than normal so that all of the passengers don’t all pass out. Fantastic. Probably a bit too much information from the pilot.

Not sure what to type other than that I feel the need to type something. I am kind of in the doldrums right now. I have been on the road for eleven days and working for fifteen straight — that will be nineteen by the end of the week.

On the one hand, I need a break. I need to relax, I need to see my family, I need to hug everyone and remember what I left. On the other hand, it is always hard to leave the tour work. We have such a great team of people out there, and working on events you create bonds that go far beyond other professions. It is funny: When you first go out on the road in this business, at first it seems that it is so different from the real world. But after a few days, it is the only world that seems to matter. I will miss everyone.

Wondering a lot lately about the crooked path we all walk down. Each person’s path is a bit different, but they all seem equally crooked — cutting back and forth across interests, and friends, and jobs, and lovers. Imagine how many activities and people we allow to enter and exit our walk. You hope that there is a fixed destination to which you are walking, and that the cuts and switchbacks in the path are still going to lead you to some true north. But it does seem at times that the path turns so much through the brambles and brush that you almost lose it entirely, and when you come out — you’re on a different path all together.

Or is it the same path? Was that detour through the briar patch exactly the route you were supposed to take?

I am on a hot, stuffy, sold-out airplane, and I feel totally lost and alone. Nothing to do but keep walking.