Jadi Campbell

Grounded Jadi Campbell

Rich and Nicole Gleason are a typical married couple: three kids, a dog, a cat, a home mortgage. They've drifted apart, consumed by family, jobs, and the never-ending chore of holding things together. Until a summer holiday when Rich and the kids go camping without cell phones - and without Nicole. She attends a convention in San Francisco and visits Glen, her brother's oldest, best friend. While her family explores the great outdoors, a cyberattack lames the planet. Nicole's plan is to reunite with her family in Seattle. But now planes aren't flying, and she can't reach Rich and the children. Nicole and Glen have renewed the closeness of childhood friends... and an unplanned, new intimacy as lovers. It's complicated. They embark on a road trip to Seattle. The miles fall away as Glen reveals the tragic story of his ex-wife and scarred son. Two stories, read aloud on the long drive, frame their tale: a temple in India and a blizzard in northern Sweden. The stories are like Glen and Nicole: hot, and cold, and searching on the road for a place between extremes. How do we heal from an unbearable loss or unfulfilled desires? What happens when you get an unlooked-for chance? Maybe being grounded is when we recognize possibility and responsibility in relationship to each other. Maybe being grounded is facing our lives and choices square on, without flinching. And maybe, just maybe, being grounded is the state between decisions where we experience an unjudging, all-encompassing state of grace.