Back to the Future
These trips to Denver are really messing with my head. Up until now, my life has been neatly divided into distinct periods of time mostly based on jobs or accomplishments. Thus was my move to the mountains and the start of my nature stock photography endeavor. Tricia’s passing has of course blurred the lines and I have had to make numerous trips to Denver to tie up loose ends.
Well of course my old friends are still there, including Dennis whom I worked with for many years at the computer mainframe company I was employed by for most of my software career. When we first got together for lunch after at least six years it was like we had lunch together yesterday. Nothing has really changed, nothing forgotten, six years gone by like it was nothing.
At first it felt strange going back there because all I could think of was my memories with Tricia, but now that time has put some distance between me and those memories I find myself getting back in touch with the place. Today as I stood out front of the restaurant it felt like it had been just a week since we met there and shot the breeze waiting for the doors to open at 11:00. The place has not changed at all, everything is exactly as it was six years ago, including the bartender and all the waitresses, who all look exactly the same.
Lunch was great and soon we were headed for home, me barreling down five lanes of I25 in bumper to bumper traffic just like a pro race car driver, except of course that there is no point in passing anyone as there is nowhere to go but behind someone else. The city looks pretty much the same, the same buildings, same exits, same names on the buildings. As I passed through the south end of town I started looking for my exit, Lincoln Avenue… until of course I remembered that wasn’t my exit anymore. Then I started thinking how much I felt like I was in an episode of Back to the Future. Am I the guy who lives like a hermit in the mountains, or the guy cruising I25 and hitting the cool restaurants in the big city? Weird.
Then it occurred to me… God and destiny didn’t build those partitions around my life, I did. Tricia’s cancer has shrunk my world over the last few years but now we are both free of that terrible scourge. She is dancing in Heaven and I am free to be whoever I want to be. Today I was the city guy, tomorrow I will put on my backpack and climb Bald Mountain where I will not encounter another person for hours. It’s all good.
