Why Everything Will Be Okay

Petrified Forest National Park, AZ, 2014

When you consider we're just balls of energy inhabiting physical bodies for a brief moment, here on planet Earth, so much seems so trivial.


When I ride my motorcycle across the United States, and find myself on a long stretch of road cutting into hundreds of miles of open space, I can feel it.

Suddenly, the worry of having enough money goes away. Knowing where I'll be sleeping tonight doesn't matter anymore. My standing in the community becomes worthless. Stuff like my credit score, my taxes, even my business is so insignificant. I could just throw it all away.

All that matters is that I'm here, on this planet, with the chance to be in a physical body, to feel, to do, to experience. Just the fact that I'm alive, in this second, is all that really matters.

I could be in a downtown bar drinking a really good beer, or I could be homeless sleeping on a sidewalk, or I could be naked in the desert with nothing. Either way, I'm still thinking, feeling, and doing. I'm still soaking up what the Earth has to offer while I'm occupying this body.

Even if I were to die the next day, I still got to experience what it's like to be alive.

And I wouldn't really die. I just wouldn't have this body anymore. But who's to say that I won't occupy another body some other time, some other place? Why would I want to go to Heaven if I have to be there forever? I'd rather see it for awhile, and then move on.

It's making good with whatever life has given you, in the time you're here, is all that counts.

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Getting Lost in the Translation

Kenosha Pass, Park County, Colorado, US-285

When two people look at the same thing, they never see it the same way. No matter how hard one tries to explain their perspective, another person can only struggle to see it exactly as intended.

Instead, two or more people stand at the top of a pass and gaze out across the country, and simply agree that it looks inspiring. There's no need to elaborate in detail, because each person will interpret it into something personal of their own.

Reducing myself so small that I become invisible is something I often get out of riding across North America. That I can go so deep inside my thoughts, by placing myself so far out into the open, somehow seems ironic.

I can just as well as become invisible among the people that walk up and down the sidewalks of San Diego's downtown. But for me, the frenetic chaos of a bustling metropolis is more an intellectual exercise of watching and observing. Perched on my motorcycle however, along a two-lane highway in the middle of America, amid horizons of valleys and mountains, is like a chance to realign my spirit with Earth's energy.

The details of what two motorcyclists get from riding the same stretch of road are best left to each rider. To explain the inspiration I feel inside to someone else only causes layers of detail to get lost in the translation.

I sometimes wonder if maybe all I really need to do is post one single photo as a complete blog post, with no words. Because maybe that's all that needs to be said.

Though I can't help myself but to write long articles, I really try to keep them short, and not go too far into details. I find the less I say, the more you'll interpret it into something meaningful to you.  And I'd rather inspire you than just tell you.

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How Sash Got the 2015 Indian Scout

Sash on a 2015 Indian Scout, Petco Park, San Diego, CA

Many of you already follow my wife's blog, and therefore you already know that she got herself a 2015 Indian Scout.

Or perhaps best clarified, Indian Motorcycle International, LLC, a division of Polaris Industries, Inc., loaned her one of their pre-production, media-edition, 2015 Indian Scouts, for at least two months.

I make that clarification, because apparently, these pre-production, media-edition bikes are not exactly what will be delivered to buyers. I'm not aware of all the differences, but am told that among them is that actual Scouts will have adjustable foot controls for shorter/longer legs, and greater fuel range (I'm not certain what they'll do to increase that).

But for all intents and purposes, she's got an honest to goodness 2015 Indian Scout, for free, for at least two months, and more importantly, she's been saying she's going to get one going back to last August.

As the husband in all this, it's been quite an observation.

Sash was at the previous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally the second the bike was unveiled to the public. She had acquired a rather coveted media pass into Indian's "Reveal" event.  She got to chat with some big media names in the motorcycle industry, like Peter Jones of Cycle World, John Rogue of Bikernet, Cyril Huze of Cyril Huze, to name a few.

But she also got to meet executives at Indian.

It took a lot of follow-ups, a lot of persistence, along with demonstrating that we're good at blogging and social media, have a decent sized following, and are committed to working within the motorcycle industry. We submitted a written proposal, attended events where Indian executives would be, and it also helped that Sash and I had written reviews of the new Indian Scout on Biker News Online and and Women Riders Now.

I mention this because a lot of people have asked us how it is that Indian Motorcycles would loan one of their bikes to Sash for a couple of months, when most media people only get them for a week or less.

Well, persistence. A positive enthusiasm for the Scout. Being sashtastic. Won't take no for an answer. Being a woman. The last part has to do with Indian Motorcycles wanting to get more women riders over to their camp.

There's also a story about her father.

Sash remembers him telling her that he had always wanted an Indian Scout. He had told her about the legacy of the Scout. Considering he was a full-blooded American Indian, it seemed like a fitting bike. This was during the late 1960s and 1970s, and by then, the old Scout 101s were hard to come by.

But this isn't simply a story of a girl wanting to honor her father, or gain his approval through the afterlife. She really digs this motorcycle! Did I mention the review she wrote for Women Rider's Now?

And now with 35,000+ miles of riding across the country for nearly two years, as a newbie rider, she's ready to settle into a long-term bike.

That's what the 2015 Indian Scout means for her.

But I'm really just proud of her persistence and for believing that she'll make the impossible happen.

Finally, as part of our agreement with Indian Motorcycles, we've launched a dedicated website documenting Sash's ride on the Scout for the next couple of months... "Sash On A Scout" http://www.indianscout.com

This new website will also detail the impact Sash's father had on her new-found motorcycling passion.  She'll be riding the Scout to various places of her troubled youth, reconciling the past, while seated on the bike her father always wanted.

I hope you bookmark it, blogroll it, and share it with others. (it'll make us look good to Indian...)

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The Answer to Life's Mysteries

Where I feel most safe

Perhaps the only answer I've been able to arrive at, with respect to life's mysteries, is that there's never really any gain or loss.

That is, for every dollar earned by a man, a dollar was spent by someone else. Every apple that grows from a tree, water, carbon, sunlight, was taken. Even when we gain knowledge, it seems we forget something else.

The Universe never gives without taking from another.

After so many years of riding long journeys on my motorcycle, I've gained a certain amount of richness. I see how vast the world is, but at the same time I feel more small. I see how intricate our society is and am only more confused.

It's as if gaining enlightenment is really just becoming more humble.

Part of me sees solutions to the problems that plague us, but on the other hand, patching a hole in one place seems to open up a hole somewhere else. It's like when you take a pill to cure an illness, and you end up with side effects from taking the pill.

In the end, I can never seem to get ahead. It's always one step forward and one step back.

I'd rather just lay myself afloat and let the highway's current deliver me to the answer. The realization I am just one small human being on Earth, let alone during a very brief moment of time on this planet's history, could either have me hurried in a panic, or calm in assurance.

Salvation along the Church of the Highway has it's unique brand of enlightenment for someone who's spent a lot of time inside their head. I often believe that the sight of trees, mountains, and rivers is an assurance that I'll return to someplace more ageless than where I am now.

Others can toss dollars into a tithing basket, and others still can consume alcohol at a late night happy hour, but it's all the same church. It's all just people releasing control and letting the Universe take them.

In the end, there are no winners and losers. Everything we've gained is taken away. Even the knowledge learned from our existence is useless at that point. It's better to accept others as they are than to ask for changes. The best answer to life's mysteries is to let go, let things be, and appreciate what comes our way.

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