Where The Ohio River River Flows Into The Mississippi River At Cairo, Illinois Is My Point Of Creation—Since Beginnings Are Inexplicable, You Can Create Your Own

Above is a picture of where the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River.

The Mississippi is on the left and the Ohio is on the right. The town between the rivers in Cairo, Illinois.

I took this picture from an airplane last month as I flew from Houston to Cincinnati.

Most times when I fly between Houston and Cincinnati, the plane passes over Cairo.

I’ve decided to make personal creation myth or story.  I’ve picked this spot as the place where I began.

You can pick your own place.

Beginnings are at bottom line inexplicable. We can create any story that fits our needs and what we feel the facts to be.

Here are three things that define me—

1. I was formed when the elements were formed for the first time. So were you.

2. I’m as American as they come.

3. I’m the person I am in day-to-day life. Everyday life is of great value.

Everything you need to understand the world is around you each day. These things are accessible with effort and imagination.

Cairo is all the things that I am.

Cairo is a place with both land and water.  It is a place I’ve often seen from the air. It is where two big rivers combine to make an even bigger single river.

It is a place where the elements are present and where something is created. It is a mini-Big Bang of rivers.

There is little more American than the Ohio River and Mississippi River.

And while I value the New England and Texas aspects of who I am, I’m Midwesterner at core.

I can’t think of a better place for things to have begun than where two great American rivers meet in Illinois.

Not only all that, but Missouri and Kentucky are also in this picture.

Missouri is on the left, Kentucky is on the right, and Illinois is the peninsula in the center.

In addition to passing over Cairo in the air, I’ve also driven to where the rivers meet.

When my wife and I drove from Cincinnati to Houston in 1998 while moving to Houston to live, we stopped in Cairo to see where the rivers met up.

As I fly over this point twice each year to go back to Cincinnati, I think of how the wife and I where there, and I think about our good life of the past 14 years in Houston.

My existence as someone formed at the very beginning, as an American, and as an individual—These things all come together at Cairo, Illinois

I can’t speak for you—I have no interest in speaking for you—but Cairo, Illinois and where the Ohio River and Mississippi River merge is the place where I began.

Create your own place of origin and make the best use possible of your talents.