Climbing into the driver’s seat perched high upon the lifted frame of our rental Jeep, I used my thumb to clear the dust from the gauges. Once strapped in, I stomped the clutch and fired her up. It had been several years since I had driven a stick, so as we began to roll along the washboard that serves as street in the old mining town, I might as well have been 15 again whiplashing us through the gears on the way back to the cabin.

We were in the 4 Corners area for the first time and planned to stay the entire month of August. One early lesson was that I will never again visit that part of the country without a 4 wheel drive vehicle. We had taken the #CariVan so we’d have a place to sleep on camping excursions, but there were just too many places we wanted to go that were high clearance 4×4 only, and the spot we had in mind for this outing was just such a place.

A couple of years ago, we were awarded the unique opportunity to spend the Christmas holiday along the US-Mexico border just in time for a government shutdown spurred, at least in part, by a political dispute over that very border. Feeling the gravity of that situation as we explored the ruggedly beautiful terrain and the river that runs between our countries offered a unique vantage point from which to contemplate the situation.

The following piece was written shortly after that trip. Much has changed since it was penned. But our current challenges seem only to have widened existing fissures and opened up fresh ones—between countries, states, neighbors, and even families. It is with a little melancholy that I entertain the idea that the upshot of this message might be evergreen.