A Happy Family Reunion

The drive into Odessa was mostly uneventful—except for when we were in Roswell in the middle of the night and we were stopped looking at a map amd the cops came by and asked if they could helps us. We asked if they knew where they was a restroom, and then they let us use the restroom in the police station. That was kind of fun. I've said this before, but I really like driving. Especially in the west. Something about the open road and the landscape. It's just amazing to think how long the landscape has been there, and how many people and animals, even in this desert, have stood in the same spot where we now stand. And then you start to think even more about the eons it took for that landscape to form—how a long time ago it was probably under water. And then you start to think about how your parents and grandparents once encountered this place. And then you start to think about how things will be for your children—how they might travel this road and it might be ever so slightly different, but at the same time, it will be much the same experience repeated all over again. And then you start to think about how the landscape will be eons from now. It really starts to put the temporality of human life in its place. We think we're really important in the grand scheme of things, but in reality we're much less important than we think. It's the human race that has everlasting relation with the land, each new generation repeating and perpetuating the experience. It seemed, for an instant, that I could sense grandpa's presence out there, as if he were part of that landscape, hiding somehow in the history of it. He was looking at me, partly in awe of how his seed multiplied and kept going in me and my siblings, partly in anxiety, wondering how long it would go on after me. I don't know how to describe what I'm saying. It just made me long to have my own children, to be a part of the process. It was quite an interesting sensation.

Anyway, we got into Odessa early (around 8 or 9), chatted briefly with dad and Grandma and Joel and Laurie, and then slept for about 4 hours. Then Raelyn and her kids arrived, and then mom and Bryan came over from their hotel, and Amy and Susie arrived, and before you knew it, it was a big happy reunion. It's been a long time since we had so much family in the same spot. And just seeing all that family together, knowing how Grandpa's influence goes on and how he was smiling down on his family even at that moment turned what could have been a very sad occasion into a happy one. We had pizza for dinner, and then went to Grandpa's viewing (where we also ran into Grandma and Grandpa Nissen). I didn't look in the coffin the whole evening. For some reason I'm just not comfortable with that. It was amazing how many people came to say goodbye. Students of his from a long time ago saw the obituary and came to pay their respects. After the viewing, we went back to the house briefly, and then most of our family (except for dad) went to the hotel, where we chatted and I even worked out with Bryan a bit before calling it a night.

Posted May 31, 2004 (11:19 PM) | Comments (1)