Experience is a riverbed

It is clear that Eric McVadon, paterfamilias to many in the McVadon clan, is crafting an experience out of love for our trip to China. His speciality is in the details - the thoughtful planning of who sits next to whom; how can 17 different air travelers arrive at one spot from different origins; and what might make each moment of the trip memorable to the group. It is as though a lifetime of arranging, caring, designing, and communicating come together in one swoop. 


For some of us we are just challenged to hold on. If travel is meaningful, it changes the participant by placing him or her in situations which extend extend experience. For many of us, China will extend us. Eddy is going to Asia for the first time as a graduation present - and because he deserves to be exposed to the many contradictions there. Alberto is going because he needs a vacation far away from the pressures of home, where he can be swept along. Erin and I are going because we want to share this time with our family. 


And yet, this trip is only partially about China. My own experiences as a traveler have always had a lot to do with planning my own and family trips. Erin rightly notes that I am less open to the idea of others making my plans. But what we are about to embark on is more than just plans - it is almost a moveable feast. I am more curious about what Eddy and Alberto will think when they see cities with millions in them, when they look at history that predates all of our various national backgrounds, and when they meet a people who are quite proud of their role at the center of the world then what the Three Gorges look like. So this trip includes both the opportunity to travel where I haven't been and to push me to travel in a way I don't typically travel. For that I have only to thank Eric. While I am sure we will thank him all the way across the country, I hope he sees it as at a deeper level as well.


On a lighter note, many of us (me) are scurrying around getting ready as though China were not merely 14 hours a way but some light-years away. I went shopping with Alberto today and bought three pairs of shorts to go along with my other three. Since I wear one pair of shorts for, ahem, a long time, this seems like a bit of overkill. But moving through JC Penney's I was overtaken with a sense that each item snatched up somehow was a critical factor in the trip. In my arms at the checkout counter was actually more than could fit in my suitcase (without compression factors, of course).


The final item to note here today is that for all that this trip bears elements of a whirlwind dash across China, the three-day cruise down the Yangtse becomes more appealing by the hour. The ship (or boat, or whatever - I am sure the Admiral will straighten me out about that one) is not just luxurious, but it has a pool! We like swimming! We can, therefore, sit poolside and watch the ancestral land of the Ba (look it up, I can't do all the work) slide by - and can play a bit of Marco Polo when the scenery is less enchanting. 


Did I mention the boat has a pool? I mean, seriously, that is just too fun.


Experience is a riverbed, Its source hidden, forever flowing:
Its entrance, the root of the world, The Way moves within it:
Draw upon it; it will not run dry.