Start from zero
By Christopher Myers
As AAA helps me find the right garage for my imperiled 1978 Mercedes 240D and arranges for a flat bed, I’m peaceful (here on the shoulder of Interstate 10 outside Van Horn, Texas) because I planned for this event as a possibility of driving a 38 year-old car across the country. Planning helps, but plans don’t always work out the way we dream or imagine. And it doesn’t change or supersede God’s will in our life’s daily activities and resulting circumstances.
A day later, I’m in Marfa, Texas. Sitting on the private terrace of the Rock Hudson Suite in the Hotel Paisano. After being towed back to El Paso I learned that Felicity (my name for the light blue darling 240D) had thrown a rod; my ‘classic’ adventure came to an end. The mechanic bought her for $100 and now as I listen to the 6 O’clock bells here in Marfa, I celebrate Felicity’s memory and God’s plan that intervened and brought me here.
You see, as I waited for Fernando, the mechanic to give me the prognosis, a friend called to gently and lovingly tell me that our dear friend Valerie had passed away. It was a shock. She was young, vibrant, an artist and as alive as any amazing Englishwoman ever was! I loved Valerie and I still do.
Driving eastward I saw the sign for the towns of Valentine and Marfa outside of Van Horn, Texas. Feeling incredibly unsure of what my next stops were on my remaining 1,600 miles, I heeded ‘the sign’. Valerie was the artist’s artist—eloquent, edgy, witty, engaging, devoted and above all caring about us and that our souls would get it; and when we got it she exclaimed, “YES!”. She loved furniture, paintings, wine, dogs, nature and life. I’d heard that Marfa was an artist colony of sorts, so determined this is where ‘we’ would go together to celebrate the memory of her life as a friend and artist that she will no longer grace us with down here.
I drove and drove through the glorious vastness that is Texas. The film Giant was filmed here; hence my staying in the room where Rock Hudson camped out while filming. And I’ve got a Martini by my side, which is verboten before writing this column, but for Valerie, I’ve made an exception. And I always will.
This journey, from Santa Paula, CA where I bought the car to Orlando where I will drop off the rental, has become a glimpse into the grandeur and delicacy of life. Souls, male and female that I’ve known and still fellowship with are the mile markers of my soul’s journey. Beats of my heart’s timeline. Angels are, in fact, made higher than man, because God has given them immunity to our predicament of loss.
Christopher Myers is a designer/writer/forgiven sinner and has fellowshipped with believers around the world. Faith is his passion. Email him at c.myers@me.com