Epilogue #2 – 'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.' -Ferris Bueller
This is the last of my Epilogue type BLOG posts, I promise!
Many folks ask how we have adjusted to being home, after 30 days basically disconnected from the rest of the world and all of its news, some good, but mostly sensationalized and disconcerting.
My answer: I’m back and connected again, but that’s not necessarily a great thing.
Being on the Tour Divide is a very similar experience to going on a long backpacking trip in the Wilderness. You are at most times, alone. Alone not only physically, but mentally as well.
As much as Ray and I were on the same journey, when we were on the bikes, we were rarely next to one another. Most often we were distanced from each other, and everybody else. That left us alone in our own thoughts. Now for some, this might be an uncomfortable and foreign place to be. In today’s world, we are ALMOST never disconnected. We have a constant link, usually a cell phone, with its constant notifications, flags, text messages, emails, etc. to remind us of the world in which we “live”.
I put that in quotes because it becomes VERY obvious that the place we live in is not a reality most of us experience. (Stay with me for a bit here)
Much like the social wrappers I talked about in my last blog, the world we live in, day-to-day, holds little in common with reality. By its very nature, technology has wrapped us in a cocoon of simulated connectedness. We live in a world of news feeds and social media connections that are not really connections at all, but a facade of what the world projects. This facade is most often what advertisers and social networks want us to see as reality. Our daily lives are so occluded by this view that we come to see these influences as real. In my opinion, they are all false.
Additionally many, if not all, of us have fallen prey to the notion that being connected to work is a must. Years ago when I sill worked for the Army, I was provided a work Blackberry (Yes, I’m old). Some at work were jealous of my new technology. It was cool for a while. I was able to stay connected with work, and was able to answer the slew of emails that came in after hours. I was efficient. Not more than a few hours went by that I didn’t provide information vital to my boss or his boss. I was on my game!
But it became apparent after a while (way to long if you ask me), that what I was really doing was working for free. (It was a bit different when I had a program supporting military operations. I would actually receive emails from a theater of war, from a soldier that needed support. Those were important to me and not something I ever ignored.) Most emails however turned out to be associated with the daily workings of the organization. There was rarely anything that had to be answered after hours or on weekends, except for the fact that a boss wanted an answer NOW! Mostly because he/she was being asked after hours or on the weekends and felt the need to answer ASAP, and that flowed down to me.
Now, perhaps 20 years later, for many of us it has become mandatory that we check our email and get answers back in the evening or on weekends. Work calls after hours and on weekends are commonplace.
I’m not trying to turn this post into a complaint about the modern world. Well, actually I am!
We live in a society where the average US worker is working more hours and providing more time to the job (One study I read shows that US productivity has gone up about 59% in the last 40 years, versus a 13% increase in compensation over the same time. Thanks for the reference Ed Z!).
Our lives are seemingly all about working. We spend more time producing, and less time reaping the shrinking rewards from our hard work. How many of us take our cell phones or laptops on vacation so we can check work??!! It has simply become an accepted practice and one that is, in my opinion, detrimental to our everyday happiness and lives.
So that brings me to my final thought on the Tour Divide experience.
The TD taught me many things about cycling, perseverance, suffering, and what I’m capable of. But the biggest taka-away for me was this: Life will go on without me for a while, and/or forever.
I don’t need to work for free. I don’t need to be constantly connected to the news. I don’t need to know what everybody else is thinking, feeling, and mostly posting, on social media.
Life is fleeting. It can and does end in the blink of an eye.
The old adage that nobody ever wrote on their headstone “I wish I’d spent more time at work” is absolutely true! We are, in many cases, just a piece of a work machine that will be replaced the second we are gone. We may not want to believe it, but it’s true.
So my final lesson to be shared is this:
Go live your life. Don’t waste seconds thinking you shouldn’t chase your goals and dreams. Take that vacation (leave the damn phone at home!) Climb that mountain. Run that race. Ride your bike across the city, or state, or nation. Be adventurous. Don’t delay doing what you want to do.
Our lives are not a practice for the next life. You get one life.
Live life well.
Shane
