The Why...

I have received numerous emails from many with questions and comments about the upcoming adventure.  These thoughts have taken many forms ...
"why would you do this, don't you ever take a normal vacation, you are the man, you are crazy, you're living the dream, we are so proud of you and tell family and friends about your trips, you are an inspiration to all of us, what you have been doing this year is more than admirable"...

I thank all for their thoughts and comments.  Yet, these bring up the underlying question that each of you has thought.... Why?!  That is something that I have struggled with as well...

So, why am I taking on this next adventure?  Why did I take on Africa?  What is it that is driving a restless spirit.

I came across a video that so succinctly explains the answer Why.  Why the restlessness that has stirred the soul.  The video is of an answer to the question of "Why" that was posed to a traveler who was riding his bike the length of North America from Oregon down through South America to the very end of the world.  His answer as to "Why" he was doing it was both profound and stirring.  It resonated so much as to the restlessness that I have been feeling and the drive to take the next adventure.  Since I could not attach the video, I will try to capture his thoughts as best as I can...

He said...    I met a lot of older people who commented; my life went by so fast.  Just yesterday I was 19, I don't know where all the time went, I just blinked and now I am 80.  

He feared spending his 30s establishing a routine... He said:  Routine is the enemy of time, it makes it fly by.  

When you are a kid everything is astonishing, everything is new, your brain is awake and turned on. Every passing second your brain is learning something new, learning how the world works.  The muscle of your brain is activated.  

As you get older and your brain has figured out the patterns of the way the world works... this is how you graduate school, this is how you make money, this is how you get a mortgage, this is how you have kids...  You have that all on lock down.  I know my car, I know how to get to work each day, etc.   Once your brain has established a routine, the alertness goes away, the fascination with how the world works.  

That is what adventure and travel does, it wakes up your brain.  It stimulates and activates parts of the brain.

When you are a kid it is all new.  You don't have to work for it, you are just astonished by it.  Once you are an adult, you have to choose adventure for your life.  Through travel and adventure, you see so many insanely awesome things. The brain is awakened, it is fascinated.  I didn't know my brain could be so turned on.   It is a conscious choice that you have to make.  I want to make it to 85 and be exhausted.  It is not about the bike, it is about getting out of the routine and that can look like anything.  I want to choose the mind and soul that is wide awake.  It turns your 100 years on this planet into a thousand years.

What he said about adventure and awakening the brain and discovering so many new and wonderful sights is so true.  The newness, the discoveries, the unbridled beauty that is around every curve, over every hill are just waiting for you.  It is about the simple things that we encounter on the road.  The being in the moment to be open to all that is waiting for you; that is exciting.  Once the brain has been awakened and stimulated, it is hard to not keep seeking it.  It is about seeing a length of road stretch out in the distance to the point where it disappears into the horizon in a blur of a heat induced mirage, coming up over a ridge after a strenuous climb through a mountain pass to have the gift of a beautiful expansive valley stretch out for a hundred miles in the Namibian Desert, riding through a forest that feels so primordial that you imagine it is a playground for fairies and leprechauns, seeing a waterfall appear out of nowhere that is so powerful in its majesty and mystical in its beauty, looking up at the night sky and seeing so many stars that it looks like hazy clouds, or something as simple as feeling connected to all that is around you, the people, the landscape, the sun on your face, the wind gently brushing across your cheek, the feeling of being totally alive...  intoxicating!
These are all the things that stir the soul and open the mind to something so new and wondrous.  This is what creates that restless spirit that wants that next adventure, that next experience of life.  That is the why...   Once you have seen it and once you have tasted it, you have a very hard time settling...