a.d. elliott - Take the Back Roads

Dear Henry, As a person who has gone through some significant traumas in my life ( you can read about them here ), forgiveness is a word that gets brought up a lot. So much so that I wonder if people even understand what that word means, and there are some days I want to shout the word of Inigo Montoya and say, "You keep using that word; I do not think it means what you think it means." I know I didn't understand what forgiveness meant for the longest time. The definition of forgiveness I was taught was the definition abused children everywhere are taught. Forgiveness meant you stopped crying and pretend everything was ok and that nothing terrible had happened.  Relationships restarted immediately, and there were no repercussions to the offending party. Let me tell you straight up; that definition is entirely and unequivocally false. My journey to forgiveness began with establishing the proper definition of the word because, as Joan Didion wrote in Slouching Toward Bethle

Dear Henry, There has been so much going on, with my trip to Washington DC (twice) and a journey back to my childhood city, that I haven't had the opportunity to tell you about my new hometown, Roanoke, Virginia. I should probably start by mentioning that Roanoke, Virginia is not the location of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. The Lost Colony of Roanoke is about 300 miles southeast, on an island, and in North Carolina.  In fact, Roanoke wasn't even called Roanoke until 1882.  The city is located in the valley between the Allegheny and the Blue Ridge Mountains and, historically, has always been something of a crossroads. In pre-colonial days, the area was a stopping point along a Native American trail system that I've heard called "The Great War Path," "The Seneca Trail," or "The Indian Trail," which runs the length of the valley. The route is still used today and is now US Highway 11, or Lee Highway. Within the area are several easy passes through