Point of Entry – I-270 near St. Louis
I’ve traveled to and from Missouri more than any other state. Several reasons have factored into that.
1. My brother went to college in Parkville so we took him to school, attended graduation, etc., during his three years there.
2. My other brother got his first job after college in Independence so I traveled to visit him and his wife.
3. I also went to college in Parkville so that naturally included many trips back and forth between there and my home base in Michigan.
4. My church denomination headquarters is Independence so I’ve made many trips for events and training opportunities.
5. My wife was raised there so visiting my in-laws means going to Missouri.
6. My employer of nearly 14 years was headquartered in Missouri so it was the destination of many business trips.
7. Over the years I’ve had several flights layovers in both Kansas City and St. Louis.
With all those reasons and all those trips it’s easy to see that I have a giant conglomeration of memories of the state. If I tried to draw meaning from this mosaic, I would have to simply say that Missouri memories are tied to first steps.
It was my destination when I first ventured out of the state of Michigan. It was the first place I traveled to by plane and the first place I flew to alone. It was the first place I got to visit a sibling and the first time I got to travel with someone other than my parents. It was the first place I lived on my own (almost alone, anyway, in a college dorm). It’s the first place I understood the concepts of sacred spaces and pilgrimages and the first place I ever made a business trip to.
Pretty much everything I’ve done in Missouri I’ve done again. I’ve done them in bigger ways. I’ve done them in better ways. I’ve done them in different places. But they all started there.
If I hadn’t taken that first flight alone to Missouri I wouldn’t have been as ready to later fly alone to Europe. If I hadn’t made a spiritual pilgrimage to Missouri I wouldn’t have been as ready to take a pilgrimage to the desert later in life. Had I not moved out on my own to Missouri I would not have been as ready to move out to more distant or foreign places.
Missouri has been a good, solid, first step for so many other things in life that came my way. Thank you, Missouri, for being willing to “Show Me” the first steps on my journeys.
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