Mother, Nature

In this ... memoir, ... a forty-year-old gay man and his eccentric conservative mother travel the country together and find surprising answers to our generational and cultural rifts.

When his mother, Barbara, turned seventy, Jedidiah Jenkins was reminded of a palpable, sobering truth: our parents won't live forever. For years, he and Barbara had talked about taking a trip together, just the two of them. They landed on an idea: retrace the thousands of miles Barbara trekked with Jedidiah's father, travel writer Peter Jenkins, as part of the 'Walk Across America' book trilogy that became a sensation in the 1970s.

Jenkins discovers who she was as a wife scorned by infidelity; and now, who she is as a parent who loves her son while holding on to a version of faith that sees his sexuality as a sin. Along the way, he peels back the layers of questions millions are asking today: how do we stay in relationship when it hurts?