Goodbye, country roads

An open letter to the place I lived (slightly edited from the original). 

After more than seven years of living and working in Southern Black Hills, it's time for me to leave. If you don't know who I am, you are certainly forgiven. Judging by the number of people who called me Jason or Justin or Jimmy or "that guy" during my tenure here, not many even knew I existed. I worked on many projects over the years and various publications. Those numerous publications are what I've been helping produce for the last seven-plus years. The publishing industry is always changing. And so are we, our needs and our lives. 

I saw some of the best and worst things in my life happen here in the Black Hills, from the birth of my son to my divorce which I initiated back in 2012 or so and finalized in 2018. I came here in part because I wanted to give my marriage another try. There was a lot of trying and failing, in general, but that's just life. What made my stay here unique were the people and the landscape, both surely influenced by each other. I recall a kind soul stopping me and my then-wife on the steps of the post office and welcoming us to town. She said "winters are long" but it's a great place to live. Indeed. On both counts. At times, it felt like I was living at a remote Alaskan outpost, deserted and blustery, but home, at least for a while. As many year-round residents understand, I earnestly looked forward to the return of the mountain bluebirds each spring. Yes, winters were long, but it was a nice place to live.

Living in the Southern Black Hills was almost like living in a John Denver song. I spent so much time getting lost and finding something amazing on those many miles of country roads. Venturing off the beaten path offered even more adventure. Just the other day, my son and I, while raspberry hunting, came across an old mining camp which we couldn't access before the river went down. That's one thing I loved about living here: the Old West wasn't so old you couldn't reach out and touch it. It has a history you can still walk through, see and feel. I wandered through the ruins of Spokane and other ghost towns (some still inhabited by a few die-hard souls) and imagined what life must have been like not that long ago. Every single hike, I found something new and interesting.

What was even more special than enjoying the flora and fauna of the Black Hills was seeing my son turned on to things I love. He has some hyperactivity behaviors, so the calming aspect of nature was invaluable to him. And, if he was full of energy, which is often for a growing boy, we would go on hikes. This spring, we even ventured up to Black Elk Peak (which I will forever know as Harney Peak). He said he wanted to do it again the next day. He probably wasn't kidding.

From now on, if I come back here, I'll be a non-resident explorer of the place. But, I will always remember with fondness the many years I spent here (just as I do the years I spent from birth until age 10 in Hot Springs, just down the road). Even though they were hard years, I won't remember them that way. We tend to filter those things out of our memories. It was one of the most unique experiences of my life living here. If you live here or are from here and now live somewhere else, surely you know the feeling. Though I may find other country roads to wander down, they won't be these same roads, the roads where I sometimes got lost but often found something wonderful anyway.

Thank you to everyone who made my time here memorable. Thank you to all the kind souls I met. Only God knows what the future holds for me, but I know I will take a huge part of this place with me, if only in memories. When you see a newcomer wandering those country roads as I once did, enamored with the place and perhaps paying more attention to the scenery than the road, give them a wave like you did me. He's busy making memories that will last a lifetime. 

***

Strange things are happening in my life. Things I thought were real turned out to be phantoms. Things I thought were solid are no more. Everything changes. Life is liquid. All I have is God. The rest can be taken from me at any moment. I may be blessed or cursed, but always I seek Him. Everything else can change in a moment. 

Strangely enough, one of my brothers applied for a job near where I am going to live. 

Thank you for reading. God bless.

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