Dunno if anyone remembers but last year I took a ~200 km
loop to the town of Bolton, Ont and related the experience
here. Nothing special about the town or the trip except that
I spent a few teen years there 20 plus years ago. Returning
after 2 decades was definitely a zen thing - symbolically
travelling back in time.
This summer I am pondering a much larger foray, spiritually
speaking. I am considering to take the train to Halifax NS,
travelling the South Shore to the town of my birth [well
not technically born there - that took place two towns over
in the nearest hospital] I figure that the trip will be
nothing huge, ~600 km or so. But as a journey of something
like 25 years in time - a symbolic circumnavigation to the
beginning.
When you think of the path your life takes to get you where
you are now... then look back to your beginning. Where your
childhood was played out, where what is _you_ was
formed.... where your parents rest.
Ya, anyone can take trains plane or autos to visit your
past but making the journey [at least the last part] simply
by virtue of your own power, legs powering the bike, your
body the only machine, make the journey a psychological
pilgrimage.
To see what has changed, what hasn't, who left my small
town, who stayed. remember playing in that tree, in that
brook, the place you first kissed a girl.... the stretch of
street where you first solo-ed without training wheels....
the place where you learned to swim...
Or maybe I'm just being overly melodramatic.
Anyone else consider cycling as the search for... the zen?
... the tao?
... epiphany?
... self-discovery?
--
'the place I come from is with me all the time' -
meredith brooks