Thanks for the Ride

I want to live the one life I was given. Anything else may or may not come. I want to get in life's car, fire the engine, put on my seatbelt. Click. Then accelerate into the open road like a madafaka. Faster than fast, with not enough time to look or think. Feeling the speed in my skin, bones, and soul if there's any of it left at that point. Then I want to slow down. Cruise. Wonder at the landscape around me. Look in the eyes of the people that got in the car with me. Pick up more as we go by. Drop people as they say "This is my stop". Talk about this car we're all in, and about everything outside of it. Laugh at the odds, tell some jokes, and laugh at those too.

Then pedal to the medal again. Break some rules. Get pulled over and promise the cop to not do it again. Then maybe do it again once more.

I want 900,000 miles out of that car. As the weight of the road becomes heavier than the life in that car, when it and I can go no more, I want to stop, get out of the car, and marvel at the view and the oceans of stardust that unites everything. I hope to have no clue of where I’m at. I hope that it won’t matter. That the million memories of the road to get there will be all that is. I’ll close my eyes and feel all those other lives that came along. The ones whose souls I touched and theirs touched mine. All those who came and left, but especially the forever ones. Family, friends, pets, and strangers, I want to see them all with eyes wide closed.

As I admire the worn-out car, gifting character to the already breathtaking landscape, I will think that maybe I did it right. Maybe my take on living a life will inspire some people and some stories. I want it to remind others, and myself, that it was never about the destination, or the journey. It was about dancing to the music of life. We are not going anywhere, really. We’re dancing to the music until it stops, but we first have to notice the notes decorating time. I want every bone in my body to know that we rode for the sake of riding. Moment by moment, a song written out of mistakes, lessons, joy, tears, downs, shared experiences, moments alone. Nine hundred thousand miles and nothing to show for them but the life that filled each one.

I want to see death walking towards me and my car, a smile drawn on my face, a laugh perhaps. "That was... quite a ride. You ready" death says. "I don't want to leave, but I'm ready. Thanks for letting me drive this far". The gratitude, the awe, the sense of magic from beating the odds day after day until the last… No words can explain the feeling at this point. I empty my mind for the last time, filling it with emotions from an overflown heart. “This is what happiness feels like, the pure kind. I get it now” my soul exclaims. I vow to my hands and feet for their loyal, playful, and tireless work. A deep breath and a sigh. Then I look up at the stage that made it all possible, this mysterious world. And to nothing or no one in particular, but to everything at once I murmur “Thank you for the ride”.

Death is patiently waiting; she the ultimate master of this virtue. "Let's go buddy”.

We start walking away. In the distance I try to make conversation “So… how’s your day going? Has it been a slow one? You look less scary in person btw…".