Destiny

a tumbleweed story

For the longest time, whenever I saw a tumbleweed I thought of all the connotations we have all been conditioned to associate them with..loneliness, isolation,death, silence. I imagined apocalyptic landscapes where dry winds carried these plant carcasses past other symbols of decay…like skeletons, burnt-out cars, and rusty bicycles. The feeling of being completely alone would wash over me. Not that “alone” feeling where you are nameless in the middle of a crowd, but that “ALONE” feeling where there is not a living soul around, and you suddenly imagine that every other creature in the universe has suddenly vanished.

The tumbleweed seemed like the ultimate tragedy. To grow, rooted amongst family, under an open sky..green and lush, maybe some pretty little flowers…but then your times comes. The withering..loss of chlorophyll..brittleness sets in. And then BOOM. The spine base snaps and from that moment on, absolute CHAOS. The ground beneath you is suddenly overhead, you’re out of control, you’ve lost everything and everyone you’ve ever known. You can’t grab hold of anything, you’re at the absolute whim of the winds. You might tumble indefinitely, you might get caught in a wire fence, slammed against a tree, crushed onto a pile of other tumbleweeds to form a mega-tumble…but the result is the same. You are lost forever, left to dissolve and scatter. Oh, tumbleweed.

On a recent road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I was fortunate to be the passenger. I had driven the route many times before, but my attention was always focused on the road(and the shitty drivers who never seem to know to fucking pull into the slow lane but that is an obscenity-laced medium tirade for another day). So on this trip, I gazed out the window, listening to Ed sing Hall and Oates. And I saw them. Dozens and dozens at a time! Little puffy green balls of tumbleweeds-to-be dotted the plains like a Super Mario Bros. landscape. I wanted to scoop them all up! And suddenly my perspective shifted. Imagine, you are a TUMBLEweed. Maybe from first sprouting, you are preparing to fulfill your glorious destiny. You live and grow trying to become the largest, most tumbly weed you can be. You fill your roots with water, you spread your branches in the sunlight, you become the best photosynthesizer EVAR. And when you are ready, you let go of the water. You make yourself as light as possible and you let go of everything holding you down. It is when you are lightest that you can finally let go of the ground beneath you and BOOM. YOU ARE FLYING. The wind rushing around you, you are finally FREE and on the biggest roller coaster of your life. And okay, it doesn’t hurt that you are spreading your seed left and right, because I am just going to use artistic license and say that’s feeling great! You’ve spent your entire life rooted in one spot and now you’re soaring miles, with fellow tumbleweeds, the collective elation pushing you onwards! And when you finally settle down in the dying wind, it is with a sigh and a smile. What an amazing ride. Oh, tumbleweed.

(watch this on mute with ‘WHEEEEEE’ going through your mind)