College life as I had been living it just didn't seem worth it. I dropped out of my fraternity. Stopped dating. Trudged through finals. Drove home to South Carolina. Over Christmas decided to take a break from school.
Two days after Christmas I left on a road trip--a hitchhikers road trip. I aimed at Vermont where another friend was living. He was a rock-solid kind of guy who was also dissatisfied with the way he'd been living his life. Together, I'd supposed, we might hitchhike to California where it would be warm and full of other kids our age hungry for insight.
Mom and Dad, resigned to my determination, drove me to the interstate--though the whole way suggesting alternatives to hitchhiking north at the end of December--it was already snowing as far south as Georgia.
You hear people say that there's no fool like an old fool. But a young fool is often not far behind.
Getting rides was slow. By the time I got to the North Carolina-Virginia border it was about midnight. Six inches of snow on the ground, though the sky had cleared. I kept my thumb out for a couple of hours but nobody stopped.
I went into some tall grass a hundred or so feet from the road. Fished around in my dufflebag for the tarp and sleeping bag. Laid them out, slithered in, and as my breath formed tiny ice crystals around the edges of the mummy bag, I contemplated the wisdom of my expectations.
That beam of light that had filled my head--where was it now? In those distant stars sparkling overhead in the December sky? What was it all those wise men had said?
It dawned on me that I didn't have a clue what wise people had said. I'd never really paid attention. And though I didn't understand it, this realization was the beginning of wise receptivity to the wisdom I didn't yet have! It was the thread.
I fell asleep.
My shivering body woke me up a couple of hours later. I've never been so cold. Good Lord, I thought, I might die here.
I stuffed my gear back in the bag and jogged across the crusty snow to the interstate, thumb out.
Thank God somebody stopped. Took me all the way to Washington, where I realized I had cousins. My ride let me out at a gas station. I called them. Got directions. Called a cab, arrived, got fed and took a hot shower. Next morning I spent all my money on a plane ticket back home.
The very next morning my path took a new tack. I went to the library and found the Religion section. Walked through it, up and down, back and forth, wide-eyed and thinking, Here's where a person encounters Wisdom.
But...where does that person start?
