Continental Divide

The Continental Divide is the line running roughly north and south that divides the continent in two parts. Rain falling on the east side drains eventually into the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico or into the Atlantic, and rain falling on the west side drains into the Colorado and the Pacific Ocean. More or less. I'm not a scientist; I'm an editor.

I have crossed this divide many times because I used to live in western New Mexico and traveled back and forth to Colorado, eastern New Mexico, Arizona and California by car. If you cross the Great Divide westbound out of Denver, there is no question that you are making a huge transition. The Rocky Mountains soar into the sky. I stopped at Leadville, Colorado, once (elevation ~10,000 ft.) to gas up. I was gasping for breath just walking to the bathroom and back. The air is so thin, there is not enough pressure to force the oxygen across the membranes of the lung. I thought I was going to faint.

I have also crossed the Great Divide driving west from Albuquerque to Gallup NM. If there hadn't been a marker by the side of the road with a notation, I would never have known that I had crossed a very important line. One side looks and feels just like the other, but I had crossed the divide just the same.

There is a Great Divide in our lives, too, that we cross. For me it happened when I was about forty-five years old, and it was more along the Albuquerque-Gallup road than the route over the Rockies. I gradually realized that I had stopped worrying about what people thought of me. Other people were starting to give consideration to what I thought of them. I had a sense of a certainty about who and what I was and stood for.

I had some successes and some failures, some accomplishments and challenges by this time. I knew that I when my integrity was severely tested, I could make the right choice under pressure. I knew that when I failed miserably, I could keep going somehow and learn from the experience. I had learned to trust myself and my own judgment. For me the transition was easy and gradual. For others the transition happens in one huge crisis - a brush with death, combat, giving birth, writing a bestselling book. It can take many forms.

People say "life begins at forty," and I think it is true, because we aren't truly living until we are free of looking over our shoulders to see what someone else thinks. For some this comes earlier, for some later, for some never. We learn from the story of the Garden of Eden that we trade innocence for knowledge. We trade youth for wisdom. But all innocence is not lost. One of my favorite writers, Marilynne Robinson writes: "There is an earned innocence, I believe, which is as much to be honored as the innocence of children." We work to gain knowledge and experience, then we work to regain innocence. If we are lucky, we are able to do so. Children and seniors are innocent in their enjoyments and accomplishments. We know who we are and what we do. We don't look to others for reassurance - we know it is all good. We've crossed the divide of life.