Although the setting of 'Rest Stop' is a scene from the literal, present day world, I think of it as no less mythological than the other pictures. The drive-in areas along American highways are a familiar sight to motorists; a place to stop and let cramped muscles relax again, have coffee or a quick meal at a picnic table or slump into brief unconsciousness behind the steering wheel. They are places of transience, filled with strangers 'in transit'. The rest stop is one of those places that fall between the settled intervals of life. Far from home and work, its "inhabitants" are travelers on their way to somewhere else.
I have often been reminded, in one of these spots, of the parables about wayfarers and stories of wanderers that are a part of every mythic and religious tradition. These stories seem to lead one away from the practical consciousness of day to day existence to the realization of impermanence. They are reminders of the wider context in which we actually have our being. They can therefore be both inspiring and unsettling. They tell us, subtly, that our achievements and creations, but also our sufferings, are part of a larger story. The wanderings of Gilgamesh, the ancient Babylonian king, in his quest for the secret of immortality, the homeless lovers, Tristan and lseult, who can find no place in the world to anchor their lives, as well as a host of restless dreamers who populate our folklore are emanations of a largely repressed knowledge that we all carry temporary status here. It is no accident, I'm sure, that such thoughts come when we are out on the highway somewhere, detached from ordinary roles and routines.
This particular composition is reminiscent of a rest area I have visited many times. It sits on a mountain top near the small town of Monteagle, Tennessee. Its high location gives it a very ethereal quality at twilight, when darkness has already flooded into the valley below. Bordered by miles of dense woodland, it has often seemed to me in these closing moments of the day that the place takes on some of the aura of that proverbial 'way station' which so frequently appears as a metaphor for the ephemeralness of earthly life.
