Why was it, in such moments just before I leave the South, did I always feels some easing of a great burden? It was as if someone had taken some terrible weight off my shoulders, or as if some old grievance had suddenly fallen away. The big plane took off, and circled in widening arcs over the city, over the landmarks of my past, and my people’s. Then, slowly, with a lifting heavy as steal, it cirlced once more, and turned north toward home.

Just seemed quite relevant to me to read such a passage on a flight from Memphis to Washington, D.C., after spending a wonderful weekend visiting with so many old friends, and making so many new friends that I couldn’t count them all with my socks and shoes on.