Not an Original idea-

Really some will say that the thought of biking to South America sounds scary, or fun or a thousand other things, but to me it is just what I do. It is not that uncommon for people to travel in unconventional methods all around the world. For me I do not know how the bike became my method, maybe it was like running. I hated running and then I really ran and I found it exhilarating. I guess I would really like to run around the world, but to me this is a logistical nightmare and the more logistics the more cumbersome. And travel to me is about freedom. I don’t really like public transportation, it feels too much like a can of sardines. And I do not like sardines to eat nor as a metaphorical position in life. With a quick search of the web there are hundreds of people biking around the world, some fast, some slow, some on unlimited budgets and some like bums. If I must fall into one category I would prefer the bum, something about trusting in people, the maker of all things and not in a credit card or a fat bankroll. I like simplicity, the bike seems simple enough.

I have never been happier, and it seems to me that the less “things” that I try to hold on the happier I become. Really all these things in life just bind us and control us. It is a false sense of achievement to own so many things. All the best things in life are free and it is my journey to find them all. This is not an original idea, but just an idea that we are all created for. Not the bike part, but the finding meaning deeper in the well.

I love ideas, thoughts, dreams. I have dreams for a thousand life times. I would give about 600 years to reading all the books in the world and studying all languages, then I would give a hundred to walking the world, exploring mountains and forests, then a hundred or so to drinking tea with people. Then I guess I would give a few years to running a ranch with my father, of course dad, we would not have horses. So it would take us a couple more years walking to round up all the cattle. I would love to sail the ocean blue and watch the sunset on a thousand seas. I would love to eat my grandmas french toast and drink milk tea with my sister. Who knows, maybe it would not take a thousand years to achieve all of this, but just a life time. But most important of all things, to love people, people are the greatest of books and hold things that can never be expressed in the words of a thousand languages. There is tragedy, comedy, romance and history in life. I pondered my life and feel that deep inside that my life will be a tragedy. I don’t necessarily know why, but that maybe I will miss a dream, or a hug or a sunset after a rain storm.

Do you ever have that moment when you hear a song or read a poem and you know the words as if they were your own. In the Book I find words that drive my life that some call madness. It is not original, but just a continuation of a hope to love.

The bicycle has wheels that spin, and pedals attached to a frame, positioned sits the rider and forward the whole thing goes. It is simple, not an original idea, but it once was and this idea I'm sure was received as well as snow boots in the desert, but then it caught on and was quickly passed by other modes of transportation, those that moved faster. But the faster they became the more they consumed. And here we are today with gas at $3 a gallon, maybe soon you too will ride a bicycle. Which really it is not about money, which drives most of our decisions which seems rather sad.

In a thousand years, maybe after a thousand books, I could come up with a better way or a better mode of transportation. But really the struggle is not with gas prices or stock market prices, but the attitudes of our hearts. We are only slaves to the things we allow ourselves to be. Not so much an original idea.