Last weekend, Cadelyn and I made our way literally up the eastern seaboard. We drove through 12 states from Georgia all the way to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Now, before people start rolling their eyes talking about how boogie me and Cadelyn are because we’re on the “Vineyard,” an important note - we are blessed to have an amazing village that includes my old boss, former President of Morehouse College and his wife, who offered us refuge at their family’s home on Martha’s Vineyard for an extended period of time. So, I’m grateful that I’ve pretty much stayed ride or die with all of my former bosses and it is always a source of blessing and opportunity. Just a reminder to not burn them bridges!
Okay, back to our travels - we went from Atlanta to spend a night in Asheville, North Carolina (one of my favorite places on earth). After spending a night with one of Cadelyn’s friends from her wilderness adventures and her family in Asheville, we made the trek to Washington, D.C., and spent a night with my sorority sister. From there, we then made the journey to Woods Hole, Massachusetts where we boarded the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. Four days traveling through GA, SC, NC, VA, DC, MD, DE, NJ, NY, CT, RI and MA.
It was a hike, and by the grace of God we made it safely and in one piece - I prayed fervently the whole way.
As we traveled from North Carolina all the way to the coast of Massachusetts, we were met with the weight and blur of a heavy fog.
It was the type of fog that seem to have a heartbeat and a persona. The kind that you truly don’t know what is about to come walking out of it because you can’t see 5 feet in front of you.
It’s not an ideal situation for driving, and certainly not in places you're not familiar with. But, it just wouldn’t get out of my way and I had to keep going. Each hour went by, there was no sun and the fog just sat on me.
Fog is created from the combination of moisture, heat on the bottom and cold on the top. When the sun rises, it “burns” the fog away by heating up all of the air causing the moisture to evaporate. As we drove through the mountains of North Carolina, the highways of Maryland, the turnpike of New Jersey, the outskirts of New York City, the short journeys through Connecticut and Rhode Island to the coast of Massachusetts, I had a rumble, tumble with this fog as another metaphor for life. We often hear of the fog of war, which is a highly relevant metaphor with the current conflicts in our world. It’s also relevant for me personally and for others as we think of the fog of any struggle.
In the fog, you can’t see at all what’s happening. You can’t see in front, behind, up or down. You may be able to see an outline of something in front of you or coming towards you, but until it’s right up on you, it’s not clear what it is. But, as one drives in fog, if you just focus on the lines of the road in front of you, you can keep moving (even at 75 mph - okay maybe I was doing 80, but it’s okay to do 10 miles over the speed limit). As I drove through this fog, I began to insist that I was going to keep moving whether it moved out of the way or not.
So, through those 12 states, 1,123 miles, a few meltdowns by me and Cadelyn, my back feeling like it was on fire, some Popeye’s chicken on the New Jersey turnpike (which by all measures of anyone that’s lived in Louisiana should have been terrible, but turned out to not be bad), and all the fog - I kept moving forward.
In the fog of struggle, I’m going to continue to move forward. There are times when it looks like something is coming at me, but really it’s headed away from me or in a different direction. There will continue to be moments when my perspective is limited and I just have to sit and wait for either the fog to clear away or for what’s coming to be so close upon me that there’s no mistaking what it is.
Our current host and one of my favorite intellectuals, Dr. John S. Wilson, often cites the factoid that perspective accounts for 80% of IQ. So, what does one do when fog is blurring and limiting your perspective? Does it mean you suddenly lost 80 points of your IQ and became an idiot? No, one has to know that the fog is temporary and that’s actually part of the perspective. If you want more from Dr. Wilson, he just published a book with the Harvard Education Press, a fascinating look at how historically black colleges and universities are part of the solution to our challenges with preserving our democracy (note in the acknowledgements a shout out to your girl!)
In the midst of the fog, we’re going to continue to move forward and focus on what’s right in front of us because I know that eventually the sun will come out and the fog will burn away; and in the in-betweens before the next round of fog arrives, the air will be pristine, I’ll be able to see for miles, and ain’t nothing going to sneak up on me.
Keep Moving!!