out here on the edge of lonesome: and also keith richards made me cry
Let me start by saying, I’m not sure what I want to say. Only that I feel like I need to say something. Though I am often surrounded by loving family and friends, I seem to walk the edge of lonesome a lot of the time. Isn’t it part of being human? Sometimes I choose that shadowy space, because there’s things you can only uncover about yourself by going out there on the emotional borderlands.
Yesterday after five hours of hauling ass on the interstate trying to get from North Carolina to Virginia before nightfall, to visit my elderly parents, I just couldn’t take the road anymore. Around Mendota, Virginia, right past dusk, I pulled off the highway and drove along the north fork of the Holston River. I softened my gaze and opened a dialogue with the rain, the fog, and the river rolling by. A mix of melancholy and vulnerability, with a dose of gratitude, made for a confusing brew. As always, my camera helped me stay in the moment.
And also Keith Richards made me cry.
There’s more to my state of mind at the time. For about a month, whenever I’m in my automobile, I’ve been listening to Keith Richard’s memoir “Life.” I feel like old friends with ‘Keef.’
A friend gave me a tattered box set of Johnny Depp (and Keith) reading this fascinatingly honest reflection of a life lived to unapologetic fullness. There’s a reason it was audiobook of the year when it came out in 2020. I did not expect Keith Richards to bring me to tears. But he did. Keith Richards made me cry. He recounts his storied life with candor. I had just finished listening as the last shreds of light slid behind the mountains and I was slayed. That’s another reason I just had to pull over and ponder.
“But I'm not here just to make records and money. I'm here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: "Do you know this feeling?”
“We age not by holding on to youth, but by letting ourselves grow and embracing whatever youthful parts remain.”
“True friends. Hardest thing to find, but you never look for them - they find you; you just grow into each other”
a few quotes from Keith Richards from “Life”
Darkness falls, mists rise, along the Holston River
And lastly, let your soul speak its own sermon
For years and years and years I’ve passed by this small church and thought “I should photograph that place.” So, of course the time had come given that it was dark, rainy, foggy, and I was emotionally overwrought. So here you go. Taken at a wee bit of risk to my safety, I leave you with this image. And in Keith Richards fashion, I urge you to let your soul speak its own sermon.
This little church sits alongside state route 58 at a place known as Virginia City. It’s dwarfed by a sprawling coal processing plant and the juxtaposition has always fascinated me.
Thanks for reading. It would thrill me to hear from you in the comments section.
