“Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me, as is ever so on the road.”
— “On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac.

Ahhh, the road trip. Seems that I’m surrounded right now by people who’ve just finished or are just starting a road trip. While there are plenty of hassles associated with hitting the open road, I have to say that one of my very favorite things in life is taking a road trip. And I truly believe that road trips are good for the soul.
In his classic book “On the Road,” Jack Kerouac introduces us to Sal Paradise, a young wanderer of the Beat generation, for whom the road is more than a highway — it is a way of seeking truth. Each journey across America represents an attempt to escape convention and encounter life directly. Rather than finding enlightenment in a monastery or church, Sal looks for it in movement, experience, and openness to the unknown.

The road trips have many lessons to teach us. First, road trips take time. If you’re lucky enough to have someone in the car with you, I can guarantee that at the end of your 2- to 20-hour trip, you will have shared some stories, developed some inside jokes, and learned more about each other than you would have sitting in the same office or classroom for a whole year. Even if you don’t have a roadtrip buddy, maybe you have some music or an audiobook to listen to. Listening to music is always good for the soul. And listening to new music, music you haven’t listened to for a long time or an audiobook is great stimulation for the brain. But maybe, every so often, you can turn off the radio and listen to what’s rattling around in your head. I do a lot of my best thinking on road trips. Whether you’re quietly contemplating, talking to yourself or praying to your higher power, the quiet interior of a moving vehicle is one of the best places for escaping the buzz of daily life (you won’t be answering your text messages, right?). I like to call this automotive meditation.

Second, road trips are not only about getting somewhere. They are also about the journey. While they can’t exactly be compared with religious pilgrimages, they are somewhat similar in this way. When you’re roadtripping you usually have a destination in mind (school, home, the mountains, wherever). You may even have a map or GPS directions. Sometimes it’s a real comfort to know where you’re going physically, especially if you haven’t yet figured out where the rest of your life is going. Maybe this is why I took so many road trips in college.

But wait! Did you know that there’s an office building shaped like a bulldozer off of Route 99 in Turlock, California? What about the living ghost town off I-40 in Oatman, Arizona?! How about the Dog Chapel in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a heartwarming tribute to dogs, where visitors can leave messages and photos of their furry friends.

You can map out the route of your road trip all you like but you’re going to need to allow for detours. Whether you get lost and wind up driving to New York City by way of Canada (like I did one time) or just find something interesting, you have to explore off the side of the road — these unplanned excursions can often add the most value to your trip. Because when you find something really special and unexpected, that’s a kind of miracle. If you hadn’t explored you never would have known it was there, but because you took the time you were able to find a small bit of beauty — however unconventional — that will always be with you. Life is like this. It’s often the surprising detours that shape us and help us to grow in new directions.

When the road becomes your teacher, every mile invites you to let go of something familiar, notice something new, and discover that the person who arrives isn’t quite the same as the person who left. If your most recent road trip has just ended and you’re starting to unpack, we’re glad you’ve made it here safely and hope you’ve learned some things along the way. If you’re about to take off across the state or across the country, drive safely and don’t forget to take a few detours.

The Rev. Katherine A. Schofield is pastor at the First Parish Church in Manchester-by-the-Sea. Midweek Musings rotates among Cape Ann clergy.