This is the best name for a town to have… Hope, and here I am, my first night in Arkansas, in Hope.
Great first day in the state, mostly on Hwy 67, nice and flat, shady in some areas, uneventful, and quite devoid of people, except those in cars and trucks, and I must say, everyone in Arkansas waves back, cows wave, even dogs wave. Knocked out 22 1/4 miles from the edge of Texarkana, AR, to my very comfortable hotel in Hope. Walked into town, being Labor Day, nothing was open, and I was starving! Until I saw El Agaves! Great Mexican food, had a very nice talk with the owner, Fernando. Like all of us, he has a story. Pulled himself out of the dark a few years ago after hitting rock-bottom, but now at peace and doing well. He would not let me pay for my meal, very much appreciated and generous. Thank you amigo.
And all day, I was thinking about the first time I came to Hope. Yes, this is my second visit! The first time was in 1999, about the same time of year, making it 20 years. I was working for Lumisys, a small medical imaging company, and we were venturing into a totally new (for us) field of radiation therapy, and using computed radiography for imaging. We had just been to a radiation oncology conference, and had a pile of interested facilities, without a way to follow up! So I volunteered, and took the mammoth product eval road trip, from San Antonio, to Jacksonville, FL, up to Atlanta and back through Little Rock, with lots of stops in between. I left Little Rock, finally towards home and did some traffic math which got me right into Dallas/Fort Worth right at rush hour on a Friday. So I decided to make a little time, just when I saw the sign to Hope, Birthplace of William Jefferson Clinton. Went to see his boyhood home, and regardless of how you feel about his person or politics, it’s pretty amazing that that house would eventually be replaced by the White House as his residence.
Back then, had someone told me that the next time I’d be in Hope would be after having walked from Austin, I’d have laughed. Quite the impossibility, never something I would have even considered. But we never know do we? I was working for corporate. I wore suits, I wore ties over starched shirts. I had a beeper and then a flip phone, and a Day Timer. If you had a Treo you were cool. It was fun back then, we were doing some cool stuff and working with smart people.
And as I walked today, I thought about where I was 20 years before that first visit to Hope… I had just graduated from high school and was starting at UC Davis a freshman. I was going to be a large animal veterinarian, specifically equine. Four years later, I changed course, given the degree of saturation in the field.
And then I went 10 years before the first visit, and back then, had you told me I would be a medical imaging specialist, again, I would have laughed at the impossibility. I was riding and training horses for a living. I was playing polo, managing a polo club in Mexico City, I had absolutely no intention of getting a “real” job, Mine was hard work, and though it may sound rather glamorous, it was tough. It was my living, and I loved it. Me, work for a corporation? Never.
And all day I remembered my mother, my dear mother who turned 92 a couple of days ago, who reminded us as children to “never say never”, pretty much every time we used the never word. It took me a while to figure it out, but never say never… we can plan all we want, though we’ll not truly know in advance what life will throw at us, either good or bad. But we can always decide. decide whether we stay, we move, we accept job offers and pursue change. That we can control.
I’m glad I decided to stay in Hope. It’s been a nice day.
