by David D. Horowitz
Freshly showered and dressed, I dash from my apartment, sprint to the bus stop two blocks away, and barely catch the 6:31 a.m. express bus from Seattle’s University District to downtown, where I work as a conference room attendant at a big law office.
Tired but satisfied with a good day’s work, at about 3:45 p.m. I stride to the downtown Seattle tunnel and catch the next express bus back to the U District. On most weekdays, then, I voyage in and out.
I repeat my journey Monday through Friday. Such repetition sharpens my skills at work and my vision during the commute homeward. I now understand how to find information on the firm’s website, can repair its Starbucks coffee machines, and know which co-workers prefer to discuss the Seahawks and which prefer to talk about the Mariners or Huskies. During the commute home I detect a distant ferry receding across the gray bay, and I appreciate the scene’s calming beauty; I pass an independent coffeehouse and admire how it survives; and I value the bus driver’s “thank you” and “good-bye” when I disembark. If eating out, I dine at one of my favorite neighborhood hole-in-the-wall restaurants, which I often recommend to visitors and friends.
I often cover the same ground, but repetition helps me see it more fully and clearly. I desire wisdom and appreciation, so repetition’s cycle of “in” and “out” seems part of one great voyage.
Any skill or craft, whether practiced as a profession or hobby, entails long-term voyaging in time. Accepting a commitment’s ups and downs helps us learn its ins and outs. And occasionally, we refresh, break routine, and, like tourists, gorge at a celebrated restaurant, hike to the summit of a grand mountain, ride the elevator to the top of a famous tower, attend a concert of a great orchestra, or visit ancient monuments. Commitment, though, to daily work—and its ins and outs—pays for such side-trips. The greatest voyages often consist of repeated little voyages. Indeed, isn’t a marriage or partnership a voyage in time, built of many small “ins” and “outs”? Isn’t earth on a voyage in cosmic time and not finished evolving merely because it has finished its daily or annual orbit?