Backseat Blogging Whilst Driving

I’m sitting in the backseat with my son right now. My wife’s SUV is ready to be picked up from the mechanic so we are journeying eastward across the San Fernando Valley to pick it up. I thought it would be fun and creative to write a quick blogpost right at this moment in time. My son is getting frustrated; he is trying to do his homework and I am trying not to do it for him because sometimes it’s just easier to say what the answer is. But he’s just in the mood to rebel against every suggestion I make, so here I am.

It’s rush hour, so all of humanity is in engaging in a battle of wills to get home first. I see a man smoking a cigarette, sitting on a bench that is advertising the new “Blair Witch” movie, waiting for the bus. He looks incredibly present as he exhales a puff of smoke while engaging in a conversation with a fellow female bus Patron. Being present has always been a challenge for me, even after years of trying meditation, mindfulness, and studying the research behind these practices in order to remind myself that it usually works. I suppose that’s why I’m writing this: to be in the moment instead of overly worried about future events that I can’t quite lock in on anyway. It’s a form of meditation I say, or at least, I feel like I am in a “flow state,” focused on a singular outcome: expression through writing.

(Sherman Way/Sepulveda intersection in Van Nuys: photo pulled from The Internet)