Walking in Memphis

  It was seven years ago, I remember I had all the pieces in place, and yet something was missing. Life had turned to daily routine, there was no adventure. It was then a young woman from Vermont entered my life who had spent several years on the road.

 I knew then what I was missing, I had never dared to dream.

   And there I stood, at the end of an age, a new milennium was on the horizon, and I decided it was time to test the fates, and see where the winds of time would take me.

   So, I tossed my tools in an old navy rucksack, left Seattle, and made my way to Colorado. It was to be the story of a lifetime. A chance to see this great nation of ours.

  I remember it was my goal to see Boulder. My first girlfriend had been from there, and I had always wanted to see what the world looked like from the Continental Divide.

  However, as these things go, while I did see much of Colorado, when I left for Boulder, my ride took me to Nebraska instead. Having some family in Memphis,  I decided to look in on them, and so I made my way South. 

  A few weeks passed, and finally, the big day arrived. It was to  the dreaded day of the Y2K bug. A day I had waited for my entire life. It was something that I would never see again. With a lack of options due to circumstance, I made my way to Beale Street.

  The night drew on, the bands played, and the festivities joined. As the moment arrived, BB King took the stage, and strangely I felt a madness fall upon me, a sense of grief. The thrill was gone, and so I wandered endlessly through the night, slipping past the police line into the doors of a dhingy bar.

  When I emerged, the work crews had arrived, and so I helped them to clean the street, and then I sat down, next to a monument, and watched the first dawn of the milennium.

  That was almost seven years ago, and now, I find myself in Memphis once more. It is to me a rebirth, a time to reflect on the pledge I made long ago, in another life, when I first dared to dream.

  And so as the new year approaches, I plan to return, to welcome in another  year, another opportunity, to cash in a check of the unalienable rights of man. And I would offer anyone else an invitation to join me, to pray with me, in a sunrise vigil to celebrate the New Year at the memorial to Martin Luther King Jr.