<p>Fueled by the belief that something better exists than the mundane life they've been living, free spirits Don and Paul set off on an adventure-filled road trip in search of deeper meaning, beauty, and an explanation for life. Many young men dream of such a trip, but few are brave enough to actually attempt it. Fewer still have the writing skills of Donald Miller, who records the trip with wide-eyed honesty in achingly beautiful prose. In this completely revised edition, he
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<p>Fueled by the belief that something better exists than the mundane life they've been living, free spirits Don and Paul set off on an adventure-filled road trip in search of deeper meaning, beauty, and an explanation for life. Many young men dream of such a trip, but few are brave enough to actually attempt it. Fewer still have the writing skills of Donald Miller, who records the trip with wide-eyed honesty in achingly beautiful prose. In this completely revised edition, he discusses everything from the nature of friendship, the reason for pain, and the origins of beauty.</p>
<p>As they travel from Texas to Oregon in Paul's cantankerous Volkswagen van, the two friends encounter a variety of fascinating people, witness the fullness of nature's splendor, and learn unexpected lessons about themselves, each other, and even God.</p>
<p>"A record of a classic road trip. Miller's tale is full of serendipitous adventures and thoughtful Christian reflection . . . offering the sort of deep-thought wanderings into meaning and significance that are the meat of college-age existence . . . a reminder that life was meant to be lived, not just gotten through."<em> (Publishers Weekly)</em></p><p><b>AUTHOR'S NOTE </b></p>
<p>IT IS FALL HERE NOW, MY FAVORITE OF THE FOUR
seasons. We get all four here, and they come at us under the
doors, in through the windows. One morning you wake and
need blankets; you take the fan out of the window to see
clouds that mist out by midmorning, only to reveal a naked
blue coolness like God yawning.</p>
<p>September is perfect Oregon. The blocks line up like postcards
and the rosebuds bloom into themselves like children at
bedtime. And in Portland we are proud of our roses; year
after year, we are proud of them. When they are done, we sit
in the parks and read stories into the air, whispering the gardens
to sleep.</p>
<p>I come here, to Palio Coffee, for the big windows. If I sit
outside, the sun gets on my computer screen, so I come
inside, to this same table, and sit alongside the giant panes of
glass. And it is like a movie out there, like a big screen of
green, and today there is a man in shepherd's clothes, a hippie,
all dirty, with a downed bike in the circle lawn across the
street. He is eating bread from the bakery and drinking from
a metal camp cup. He is tapping the cup against his leg, sitting
like a monk, all striped in fabric. I wonder if he is happy,
his blanket strapped to the rack on his bike, his no home, his
no job. I wonder if he has left it all because he hated it or
because it hated him. It is true some do not do well with conventional
life. They think outside things and can't make sense
of following a line. They see no walls, only doors from open
space to open space, and from open space, supposedly, to the
mind of God, or at least this is what we hope for them, and
what they hope for themselves.</p>
<p>I remember the sweet sensation of leaving, years ago, some
ten now, leaving Texas for who knows where. I could not
have known about this beautiful place, the Oregon I have
come to love, this city of great people, this smell of coffee and
these evergreens reaching up into a mist of sky, these sunsets
spilling over the west hills to slide a red glow down the streets
of my town.</p>
<p>And I could not have known then that if I had been born
here, I would have left here, gone someplace south to deal
with horses, to get on some open land where you can see
tomorrow's storm brewing over a high desert. I could not
have known then that everybody, every person, has to leave,
has to change like seasons; they have
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