6.1.2004 ...crossing the plains on a grayish windy day clouds are moving fast above and the roads are crowded with memorial day drivers. americas days to drive. lots of moving trucks like the one i'm driving out on the road. people re-locating their lives i'm in that daze that you get in when you have been driving that long straight. where everything just becomes like a dream that you operate inside. you are still aware and somewhat alert but you are unplugged. an older pick up pulling a trailer comes over a small hill and suddenly lifts trailer first into the air. it looks like slow motion the trailer slams down and flattens the truck also comes down hard and the cab is somewhat crushed. it slides to a halt and smokes a bit in seconds a middle aged man appears out of the passenger side window. he get to his and then he did something amazing which is why it is burned into my memory. he shook off death. it look like he bent over and shook his arms half like he was in ecstasy. like he was amazed that he was standing there after what just happened. it was amazing. he at that second through that movement threw off the death that had almost caught him and it seemed to me that with it he threw away all the mindless living he had every done. all the time that he had been around but not present. he was renewed through such a awful experience. gifts that look like pain...