Season Finale
Two weeks ago I arrived at work on a Sunday afternoon, like any other Sunday afternoon at work. I went to check on the garden that day and realized it was time to harvest the remains of the herbs still there. The rain and wind had been tough on my plants throughout the summer, and I could tell they were ready to be done. I was happy enough though, because I could make another batch of basil pesto for the girls and give them each one of the lovely marigolds. Those marigolds were beautiful, despite their stems being broken by the wind. I had no idea what kind of foreshadowing my finished garden was providing, even just in a few hours.
It was a stressful day at work, but not unlike many days at work this past summer. It seems like the dream job, managing a skatepark, but the role of manager is easily construed by the local kids as the man. For this reason, they’d given me a pretty tough time as I was the rule enforcer. Glimmers of friendship showed here and there, but the bulk experience of being the manager was separateness and being othered.
That Sunday, the phrase that kept repeating in my head was “I’m done.” Sometimes words seem to get in my head without my summoning, kind of the same way it is when Real Face songs come about. But I felt inclined to be skeptical towards “I’m done” because Lillian and I had a plan to move about a year later. I knew the job wasn’t forever and we’d go to a place in the midwest where we wanted to plant roots when the time made more sense. Truthfully though, we had been talking about moving sooner as the skatepark job was becoming more stressful.
Some truly egregious behaviors ensued that day from the kids, but I will not waste time giving you examples. I was just trying to hang on and do what I could to stay afloat. Then, after a particularly frustrating and climactic confrontation with the kids right before we closed, I broke. I went home and told Lillian I’d like to be done. It felt like a sad defeat for me to tell her this, but she was gracious and talked it through with me.
To my surprise, we decided we’d end the job and move towards our dream of living in the heart of the country. To a home that we’d like Basil to grow up in and know. A place to plant some confident roots.
So this is the season finale of our time living on the east coast. Like characters in a TV drama, it seemed like we had an incredible amount of free will in each episode until we didn’t and this finale is happening to us. We have ideas of how the next season will go, but ultimately will be waiting to see what kind of stories emerge, the same as you. Lillian and I, as sorta-kinda-script contributors, often talk about how funny it is that we just get to just make decisions for our family together. We are considered adults and even get to be Basil’s parents! Despite the radical ways we arrange our life, we get to cultivate love all the same. And that’s our take away from this past season.
As we harvest metaphorical herbs and flowers from our garden, we know we can love each other anywhere. Our love has grown all the deeper with a crazy job and not a lot of friends around here. Our love has grown in Montana, Nashville, on tour, and now in Ocean City, MD. Basil still somehow gets more cute everyday and I’m just grateful to be a witness. For all that’s known and yet-to-be-known, this much is true: I love my crew.
Talk to you soon,
Andrew
P.S. because we are on the move, all merch is 40% off until Friday at noon. Grab some merch and keep listening to our tunes. Love you… all.
