Lean on Me

Back in States, a short shot down to Philly? Not for this pair. Stan Getz, Lucinda Williams, Lenka and Lake Street Drive helped us through the backroads of upstate New York as dictated by Waze, although she was temperamental. The windmills were turning but the skies look ominous.The rain starts falling heavily as we cross into Pa.: incredible sylvan beauty that an iPhone can’t capture. Even if life’s a riddle and you are caught in the middle, just enjoy the show.

Suddenly our reverie is shattered by a loud scraping sound that is uncomfortably familiar. They boys pull off the road. The undercarriage has collapsed again requiring them to get prone and pull it back twisting it under the front panel.No phone calls this time. Blair has been complaining of the ineffectiveness of his recently purchased USB chord . He suspects an Apple led conspiracy .However, recognizing the potential dual use of his hardware he attempts a patch up job. A mere chemist. he demonstrates his engineering skills.

It works for 30 miles but by the time they reach Danville they are wordless and speechless as the undercarriage collapses again. Here Blair has his Apollo 13 moment , burrowing a hole in the damaged undercarriage , threading the needle. better to secure it to the frame:amazingly, it holds for the next 120 miles as the boys sing along – from Bette Davis Eyes to Biko, from Drunk in High Heels to Despacito, arriving in Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, to the warm welcome of Gill.One last meal then, to conclude The Trip and anticipate the upcoming celebrations of the birthdays of the Blairs. Off to a favorite, Serpico for dinner and debrief, a sigh , a cry, a hungry kiss…Yes, it’s closing time for the blog. Before some final reflections from Blair, my few thoughts.

As on the way out , we were humbled and in awe of the ever changing natural beauty of this country. The pictures barely do it justice. But even more so this time, the widespread fires , the arid browns, the brief contrasting deluges remind us of how fragile is this beauty. This, as it’s protection is undermined by a renegade leadership of the EPA. There are windmills, old and new , but mostly of the mind as the energy politics of the 1950s are pursued. The price of this neglect, measured also in lives lost over these weeks, is even starker than half a year ago.

The urban rural divide in America was even more apparent on the northern route. The millennial prosperity of the cities – San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Chicago and our favorite , Toronto – contrasted with adjacent rural deprivation often in the most pristine of settings.

This is currently our central domestic challenge . It underlies the politics of angry nostalgia for an imagined prosperity and an all too real racial discrimination of the past. Investment in education, communication and transportation massively and strategically is needed to narrow this gap. The cities, for all their wealth, are scarred by homelessness. Starting with the yawning divide in wealth that is most striking in San Francisco, how can we hope to sustain an economy as we increase the number of us who have no investment in things as they are?

Compared to the costs of our wars, how much investment is needed to address this problem? A failure to do this is a bigger threat to our social cohesion than Russian hackers with or without collusion. There IS such a thing as society and it’s worth fighting for. This solution lies within ourselves.

This is a beautiful, mainly empty country. This empty beauty has more than enough room for the vigor and hard work of new Americans. Our strength is our diversity, emigrants are the lifeblood of our renewal. The absurdity of the political rhetoric on this topic is as disturbing as the abandonment of the rural poor and the denial of climate change.

I’ll close by some words about my fellow migrant compadre, Ian. On this day of all days, I know how much he and Gill have sustained me through loss and illness. In his words ‘friends are precious’. These trips are products of that generous friendship; Ian to take the weeks out of his busy life, Gill to let him go. He works harder as he gets older and with increased purpose – from revealing and addressing environmental threats to the public health to finding a cure for Friedrich’s Ataxia. Through all sorts of challenges, he sustains a boyish enthusiasm for science, a wicked sense of humor and a loyalty for his family and friends. What a guy! His zany engagement with people of all backgrounds, political persuasions, colors and creeds were an inspiration. I am so lucky to have him as my friend.