Any motorcycle riding maniac would love to just to keep on going and leave all those commitments behind. If they didn't have family, if they didn't have a house, if they didn't have a job, if they didn't have promises they had to keep, perhaps they'd stay riding until they died.
But if you embark on a journey with the intention to return, then you never really cut the umbilical cord. It's like walking outside naked to be bold and daring, but holding a bundle of clothes under your arm just in case someone sees you.
Somehow, I want to cut the umbilical cord.
Just the other night, Sash and I watched "Field of Dreams" on her laptop in our motel room. Beyond the obvious, the movie is about people who never went the distance with their ambitions, and opted to settle for what tiny opportunity they had, only to go on wondering how life could have been.
"If you build it, he will come." the voice said to Ray Kinsella.
Sash and I have done a lot to get to this point in our lives. We sacrificed long standing marriages, which uprooted and upset many others, and we still feel the reverberations of those actions in lost friends, lost income, and damaged credit ratings. We built this new relationship, new career, and new life. Others still see us as throwing away idyllic lives and marriages for new lovers.
But it's because we didn't really have much to begin with, aside from all the material things.
Choosing to do what you think is best, versus what you feel is best, is something we've all been faced with. And most of us, perhaps even all of us, choose the former and end up wondering how things might have turned out.
"You're thinking about your father right now, aren't you?" I asked her, as the movie ended.
She proceeded to tell me about her father, who died some 23 years ago.
"He's with me right now", she said. "He's riding along with me."
"Is there anything you wish you could brought with you for this trip?" I asked.
"No", she said, shaking her head.
The less stuff we have, the more we rely on ourselves, the more naked we become, the more we see ourselves. It's like riding in the Great Plains, you can't hide and everyone else can see you.
At the end of this six-month motorcycle road trip, we'll return to San Diego, but I'm not sure we'll put down roots. We may just stay there for a couple of months, and then get back on the road again. The Road Pickle. And just keep on doing it.
Steve:
ReplyDeleteI think you are making some of us envious but I know you have made plans to do this and found a way to manage your income along the way. Plus, you are very lucky to have found someone who shares the same thoughts.
Home is where your bike is
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
When life introduces you to your soul mate - it is best you listen. Sometimes you have to do what is right for you and live for yourself and not what others think should be proper. It's been 19 years since that happened to hubby and I and we have no regrets even though it was frowned up on by many.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that this journey is opening up your possibilities for the future. There is no one that can dictate where you two need to live and if you need to settle in one place when the road pickle is over. Maybe the gypsies were on to something.
Do what is right for you and you will be happy - what society thinks be damned.
Materialism holds us back from discovering our true personalities. If we always identify ourselves by the cars we drive, the houses we own, the stuff we have inside those houses and countless other unimportant goods, we end becoming nothing more than a reflection of the marketing of those objects.
ReplyDeleteExperiences and relationships matter most. It looks like you are pursuing both. Good for you.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” - Lao Tzu
ReplyDeleteIt always seems to come back to two things;
ReplyDeleteWho's life are we living? Theirs... or ... ours?
... and...
Fear... "I am fearful of the consequences of my decisions."
But... there is a difference between having fear, and being afraid. Fear is good. It sharpens the senses and makes a person more sensitive to and aware of their "surroundings"... being afraid however freezes a person in immobility...
Most take the path of being afraid and doing what is "approved"... which is a path to nowhere.
Ruling the fear, rather than being ruled by it, is the choice to pursue Life.