Driving Through the Darkness

My truck glides along a dark path called Interstate 15 between Glendale and Las Vegas. On both sides of me there is desert and the shadows of rocky hills. The sky is illuminated by the dim, white light of a full moon hanging high in the eastern sky.

 

The lights of vehicles, the majority of which are semi trucks, keep me on the path home, as do white dots on the road that zoom past me on my left. For some reason the billboards on the right aren’t working this night. They are rectangles of blackness that slowly creep by.

 

It’s a hypnotizing scene – causing the mind to switch to autopilot and to start placing its own words on the black signs. These are the moments perfectly fertilized for thought.

 

Just ahead is the bright orange glow that continuously pours out of the Las Vegas Valley like a piece of the sun that never sets. The glow is particularly radiant on this night as it reflects off particles newly arrived from the Southern California fires.

Zoom out now and watch the darkness from an aerial view. Spread throughout are dots of light.

I’m heading toward the vacuum of Las Vegas, made up of the most dots and sprawled to the limit.

Heading the other direction is a bus full of Virgin Valley players and coaches going home to a sprawling glob of light called Mesquite. They have smiles on their faces from beating their rival and anticipation in their hearts as they look to defend their title.

In between is the Moapa Valley, a place that has grown but has managed to maintain a small-town feel in a lot of ways. Here players, coaches, and fans are falling asleep in disappointment after a home defeat.

Look around.

There are other dots of light scattered. Some big, some small, but each has stories to tell.

I’ve witnessed a handful of them so far. I watched Mountain View and Indian Springs play; The Meadows and Boulder City; Moapa and Hurricane; Faith Lutheran and Virgin Valley; Pahranagat Valley and Calvary Chapel; Lincoln County and Needles.

Each dot of light is a little different, but they share the most important qualities.

Each has teams of young people and a community that supports them. They each travel through the darkness weekly from one dot to the other. And they each are learning about victory, defeat, teamwork, and themselves.

elderbrowley@yahoo.com

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