Crossing the plains

Good morning from Topeka, Kansas!

It’s Day 5 of my 21-day #AmtrakOdyssey. I’m now on the Southwest Chief route of Amtrak after a stormy evening crossing the plains of the Midwest. There has been flash flooding in the area overnight.

I’m convinced that Amtrak is the most humane and restorative way to travel. It encourages people from diverse walks of life to slow down, notice each other and the natural world, and take delight in life’s simple pleasures. While there are still mobile phones, tablets, laptops and game systems aboard, my sense is that the spell of screens is largely broken here. People intuit that the screens are only a weak substitute for the interpersonal, embodied communication for which we long and for which we are made. 

Boy Scouts rub shoulders with Amish families. A young man preparing for his first year at Harvard engages in late-night conversation with a caregiver who is retiring and returning to California to pursue her dream of writing a book and establishing an intentional living community. Human connection is thick and the veil is thin on this common pilgrimage over rails and across this vast land. One is reassured that America is still very much alive.