Today is Saturday 19th of November. That’s quite a jump from the diary, because I’m quite late with the updates, but this is not a diary post, just a little break with a few thoughts. I’ll get back to the diary in next post.
One hour ago, more or less, I discussed with a couple of bikers that were parked in one corner close to Bourbon Street – the most busy street around town probably. I started the chat because I was wondering if one could easily park their bike in the streets like that. Answer was: “you just have to put something on your license plate, so the police cannot fine you”. Okay, interesting. Apparently they cannot lift the piece of cloth you put on the plate, they’re not allowed to touch your bike… Just wondering why they could not just tow it, though…
Anyway, I ended talking about this trip, and a possible coming one to South America, next year, and the guy just asked: “don’t you have to work?”… My answer was multiple:
- I was trying to make it cheap as possible – which according to my estimates is still between 50-80 bucks a day, including accomodation/camping and food – and I’m not a big eater.
- I was a software developer, so salary was usually good and it was easy to find a job in my area
- I was using my savings
Still, the question had shaken me a bit because I felt some resentment in the voice of that guy and I felt sorry about it. As I said before, the trip I’m doing currently is a dream for many people. Not only seeing places all around the states, but also being away from job for quite some time, and not talking about the inherent cost.
The thing I would like people to understand is, I plan to change my life. I want to put some sense in it, and I haven’t found any sense or pleasure in working for companies, small or big, because I have the feeling I’m just the instrument to one person or a small group of people for them to make a good living, have the nice and comfortable life many people aspire to – not me. I won’t discuss the merits of company leaders, I just sometimes feel fairness seems out of the equation. Someone could spend their life trying to make ends meet, through effort, dedication and persistence, and finally just make ends meet, with no space for any comfort, pleasure or even the feeling of having been successful.
I’ve been living well, most of the time not just thanks to my own work, but also to the chance I had in life being well born and getting good education, because my parents could afford it. I’m grateful they did it, and I sometimes feel I didn’t do that much for my own kids, unfortunately, but in the same time I also feel like my life doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to a classical model of what life should be, like: study hard, work hard, make lots of money, spend it, and do it again…
Thing is, I’ve studied things I like, and by chance these things have been paying well at the end. But if it was just that, I’d still have trouble paying the bills at the end of the month.
So I want to pay back. Not to give money around, not to send money to charities that I don’t trust, just to read that their leader get overpaid, or the cost of running these charities eats half of the donations, or anything as bad… I want to do my part, help some people that may never have the chance to get any proper education, to learn something and make money of it, get a pretty decent life, and in particular learn to be happy with what they have and not conform to a common standard in our developed countries where you need to look like you’ve been successful instead of just focusing on your own particular need and happiness.
In other words, we too often live what other expect of us, not what WE expect of ourselves.
So, I decided that I wanted to live with the minimum reasonable, so that I could have food in my plate, a bed to sleep in, and enjoy the pleasure of bringing something valuable to people who need it. And that also means, not in developed countries, where I put the blame on governments if the wealth is not properly shared and education is not appropriate. If all developed countries spent more money in education than in weapons or politics, the level of poverty would quickly disappear, and the economy would get a strong boost – not meaning there wouldn’t be inequality anymore, but at least poverty could be eradicated. On a side note, I always remember the story of the hobo in Vancouver that was not accepting a cup of coffee because it was not from Starbucks or that was checking his cell phone for whatever online information… I don’t call that poverty, I call it stupidity and/or greed.
The ones I want to help are in developing countries or even undeveloped ones. I’m not saying that these countries don’t have a government – they usually have one that is most often corrupt – but they don’t really care about most of their population and making that population grow.
Obviously, I’ve currently no idea if and how I will be able to help anyone, but I’m pretty sure that if I try I can pass something valuable to someone who would otherwise never get it, in the hope they can one day, too, make good use of that knowledge, skill or experience.
Again, I don’t expect many people to understand me and my desires. Probably many will label that my half-life crisis – and it somehow is – and will think it will pass and I’ll get back to the more traditional way of thinking – which I won’t. My family, even, may have a hard time understanding me, because we usually create our kids to our image, forgetting they are distinct entities and the genetics and initial education is possibly all we may have in common. I tried not to influence my kids’ lives and it was hard because we sometimes think about children as our legacy, when our legacy is what we DO, not people or things.
So, I want my legacy to be something I did to make the world better. And so far I’ve not done anything to make the world really better, I’ve been passing through it, conforming myself to standards I don’t even understand or like. And the purpose of my upcoming trip to South America and possibly other continents will be exactly that… DO something, rather than BE something. Maybe start living for real.
That is one admirable dream you have. Hope you achieve it. To make a long story short, it is not only the private sector that uses its human resources as instruments of profit. I’ve seen the same thing in the public service (where I work) over the last few years. The workforce is there only the serve the most ridiculous of client needs and to cash in revenues for the government. That’s it. I think it’s the whole western world system that is about to crash down on us.
I sincerly hope that you find all the answers you are looking for, and that you make a difference for somebody. As you say, that is our true legacy.
I get the feeling you will come back changed from that ride of yours. 🙂
Ride safely!
Thanks, Pascal. Yep, something is not right with the way our world is going… Either it has always been like that, but we’re growing a conscience, or it has not, and we have just gotten worse. In any case, it’s worth trying to fix things before they get even worse. One person at a time 🙂
On another subject, I’d like to know your impressions of the bike so far. Apart from the 8k service that you have done, has there been any problems? How do the tires hold up? Are they wearing fast or not? How does the NC handle? Any particular impressions whatsoever?
So far the bike did the job well. No particular issue, in fact no issue at all, as far as the bike’s concerned.
The biggest worry/issue I had is with the load. I sometimes feel it’s too much for the bike, and I live in the fear of dropping it at stops, gas station, etc… This said, this is not related to the bike, I’d probably feel the same with a more common bike like a BMW GS800/1200.
The tires are holding well, although I think I’ll have to change them when back home – I just checked, I’m more or less 2000 miles from home, and they _may_ do it for the rest of the trip – because the center of the tire obviously wore faster than the sides. The good thing with these tires (TKC-80) is, they are pretty resistant and wore down much slower than the OEM ones (I think). The bad thing is, first it creates a bit of a constant vibration and second they are definitely noisier on highways – possibly slower too, but they handled very well 85 mph (limit in TX on the I-10…). And eventually I only actually used them off-road once, in Monument Valley, so if I had to do it again, maybe I’d choose less aggressive ones (Shinkos?).
One thing I really appreciated is the windscreen (MadStad 22″), that I could adjust in height and angle, mostly depending on the kind of road I was riding on. I even – don’t repeat it – adjusted the angle _while_ riding so that I could immediately feel if the better the air flow was better or worse 😉
I also disliked having to remove my duffel bag at the gas station each time – even though quick to do – but I also loved having the frunk to hold my camera and charge my phone or gopro while riding.
Summarizing, the only thing I may want over a NC would be a BMW GS1200 adventure, to get more power. But I doubt I’d switch with a V-Strom for instance.
And I’d ride lighter, possibly even leaving out the camping gear: the economy is only meaningful if you go to state campgrounds, usually without wifi. Other than that you’ll pay USD40-45 for a cheap motel vs. USD30-35 for a campground, and you get your own bathroom/toilet and save the time (un)mounting the tent and stuff.
I also carried around a lot of tools. Useless in the States. Only useful stuff was a 15m power cord, a battery tender, possibly the mini-tire pump, and a few screwdrivers/keys. The rest you can always buy…