"I'm running down the road, tryin' to loosen my load . . ."

Yesterday, our family took firstkid to live in Knoxville, where he begins
life as a University of Tennessee student on Wednesday. I am convinced that the difficulty of moving has the function of diluting the disorientation of
starting anew with the relief of a completed task. I am proud and excited
for him, and I miss him, and the house did feel emptier when we returned
without him last night. I do not know how long it will be before the house
feels "usual" in its new way.

On the way back from Knoxville, my wife put in an Eagles mix CD, and there
it was, "Take It Easy," one of the songs that defined freedom when
released just before school let out for summer 1972. Written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey (Browne recorded it for his For Everyman album the
next year), "Take It Easy" crackles with sunny possibility,
wide-ranging good feeling, and some lines I have not considered enough lately:

Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you
crazy--
Lighten up while you still can,
Don't even try to understand,
Just find a place to make your stand, and take it
easy.

It occurs to me, I was two months from being a teenager when that song came out, and that philosophy made sense then. Now, I hear my own wheels, and I struggle to understand, but for about three minutes, this song offers respite. I hope firstkid has his own “Take It Easy,” and I hope, by chance, that I will hear it, too, when I need it. Life has worked out where I no longer dream of “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,” and I am proud to watch him work his out as well.