Journal
Dispatches and speculations from the American roadside.
Hunter’s Moon
Mojave desert. Sunset: 6:00pm. There’s a full moon tonight, and we pulled over to watch it rise.
Cacti
Phoenix. Sunset: 5:48pm. After looping through its grids for a solid two hours without feeling like the scenery had changed, we checked into a Ballardian hotel along the interstate.
Vegas Tableau
Las Vegas. Moon: waxing gibbous, almost full. Scrolled past an abandoned baby stroller and a bottle of champagne on the median of Dean Martin Drive.
Sprawl
Las Vegas. Sunset: 6:01pm. Shocking skies with a high of 83 and a low of 50 degrees.
Night Flight to Vegas
Thirty-nine thousand feet over the Rocky Mountains. Night flight into the desert.
Ecco Homo
Sunset: 6:15pm. A sunny Friday with a high in the 80s, and it’s startling to see Christ looking so human, so plain.
The Last Ritual
Sunset: 6:16pm. Moon: Waxing gibbous. The first rituals began to make sure the sun would rise each morning, and I often wonder what the last ritual might be.
Extension
Sunset: 6:18pm. A high of 70 degrees and 84% humidity. Spent a late night at the cemetery chapel, tending to the responses to After the End.
Future Church
Sunset: 6:20pm. A late spring day in October with a high of 72 degrees. More and more, I admire the imagery of Catholicism as a vocabulary of mourning.
So Much Noise
Sunset: 6:20pm. A first-quarter moon. A high of 72 and another humid night that feels like the wrong season.
Almost Nothing
Sunset: 6:22pm. The clean winds of autumn have yet to arrive. I’d like to read Herodotus someday.
On the Tracks
Sunset: 6:24pm. Cloudy with a high of 66 degrees and a low of 57. Everything feels like a metaphor these days.