expanse

So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river
pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw
land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all
that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it...

--Jack Kerouac, On The Road, courtesy of: Wikiquote

Flying over North Dakota was a surreal experience. Once again seeing all that farm land, the unending jigsaw puzzle of square fields and road made me feel overwhelmed.

Today I was standing in a corn field with my dad, brother and several others. The wind blew across the Plains in a quiet rage, never ceasing. I stood amoung the rows for a moment of reflection, listening to the rustling leaves of the corn plants rubbing against each other in the wind. The stalks were so tall that my head could not be seen if I walked in far enough. For a brief moment I thought about "Children of the Corn" but then reminded myself about reality.

more to come later...