Past New Jersey, and on into Delaware. Delaware is a small state. It seems like you are only in the state of Delaware for about 10 miles, yet they have the nerve to charge a toll. 'Welcome to Delaware', 'Please pay toll', 'Thank you for visiting Delaware'. So much for Delaware. Here's your $2.00. Maryland. I think about when I was little and I used to think that Maryland was up near Maine and Rhode Island. I have no idea where I got that from, but I believed that for a long time. A storm is brewing, but it's off to the left. Big, dark gray clouds roll along the horizon. I don't put on my rain gear just yet. I ride for another hour and I'm getting near Virginia. It is getting dark and this storm is getting bigger. I stop and put on the rain gear, and start riding again. To my right, the sky is just a thin layer of gray, but the left looks like a boiling soup. What's that up ahead? It looks like a sheet of rain a few hundred meters ahead. Bam! A few hundred hard drops of rain hit me all at once. Wait! Not rain! Bugs! Tons of them! AHHHH! A whole swarm of them trying to stay ahead of the storm. Flies, bees, moths, every juicy bug that goes SPLAT you can name. Yuck. Luckily the swarm is only a few meters thick. A few seconds and they are gone. Gone that is, except for the ones that decided to hitch a ride on my face shield... Lightning dances across the sky. Above a blimp is trying desperately to get away from the wind and rain to the East. It looks like a big bug. It is calmly advertising some local attraction on its scrolling light display covering one whole side of the blimp. I bet the pilot doesn't feel so calm by the way the blimp is being tossed around in the changing wind. I chuckle to myself as I imagine the blimp screaming it's distress out in 20 foot high scrolling white lights, 'HELP!! THE STORM IS GOING TO GET US!!!!' Lightning strikes again, but much closer this time. It's not raining on the road yet, but the storm is dangerously close. Flash! Boom! Lightning strikes from cloud to cloud, and then another bolt flies down to hammer the ground. The energy in the clouds is dancing back and forth, lighting up the whole sky in a beautiful display. I slow down a bit so I can enjoy the storm. It's rare that you can get a view like this one. I love a good storm, and this one is incredible. I repeat, 'wow' to myself a few dozen times. Amazing. The power, majesty, and danger of a storm have always been able to fill me with awe. The rain has begun, but nothing can dampen my mood now. I feel exhilarated and enthralled by the storm. Time passes and I am barely aware of it. The swirling patterns of the mist around the truck in front of me almost hypnotize me again.
Most people hate riding in the rain. I used to.
**** The following is PARTLY (about 30%) taken ****
**** from an essay written by me earlier this year ****
One day I was at work and one of my gate agents was performing his nightly ritual. Counting down. Always counting down. 2 hours until I can go home. 1 hour left. 40 minutes. 30, 20, just 10 more minutes! Right down to the last second when the time clock would 'clunk' to the shift change. I never gave it much thought until this one particular day. I realized what he was doing. It hit me like a ton of bricks. He was rushing the future toward himself!. He was always saying how he, 'couldn't wait' for this or how he wished it were March already. He always counts down the time until he goes home. Every day. He counts down the time in his car until he gets home. Then counts down until he is ready to go out. He lives for an hour or so, then counts down his drive home, how long he can sleep, the time he has to get ready for work, and the process begins again. He lives for a total of about 3 hours a day, maybe a little more. I realized this because I recognized some of the same patterns in myself. He was always rushing the future forward, wishing he was already there. Rushing the future forward, rushing to the next hour, day, week, year, and his grave! He was rushing toward his grave a piece at a time, and not even realizing it. Carpe diem doesn't even begin to explain the revelation I had. Seize the day means to 'make the most' of your time by acting. I realized much more than that. Stop and smell the roses doesn't do it either. The change in myself was started by just realizing when I was rushing things forward. It takes quite some time to unlearn what you have seen and mimicked all your life. At first it was difficult not to wish my time away. What do you do when you are bored and some great anticipated event lies just around the corner? That was where I first thought up the concept of 'life experiments'. I also learned to see and think about things differently. We can become so blind to the things about us, just because we see them everyday. I learned to appreciate simple things, and take joy in living. Riding my motorcycle is one good example. I hated riding in the rain. You get wet and cold, the roads are dangerous and slippery, and you can't always see where you are going. I had ridden to work one day and it was raining by the time I was to go home. I decided NOT to be miserable about the ride, even though I was going to get soaked. I started home and my legs were soaked through in no time at all. I didn't just drop into the mindset, 'I'm miserable,' 'I'm wet,' I'm miserable,' 'I'm wet,' but I took a good look around and thought about the ride. I noticed all kinds of things I had never noticed while riding in the rain before. While following a tractor trailer, the swirling patterns of mist were amazing! I never paid any attention to how they spiraled around and interacted with each other. Or that glassy look everything gets and how the road looks just like a mirror when the hard rain stops. And the smells! Everything smells so much richer in the rain. I love the smell of the ozone after a lightning strike. I am not saying that we should 'always look on the bright side.' I think people that do that are just living in a bubble. I try to look at ALL sides and not JUST look at the bad OR the good. Life is full of both bad and good and they are mixed together quite well. By not seeing and experiencing the bad, you miss all the good things that are intertwined in with it.
I began to notice after this that I was living far more than everyone around me. This may sound silly, but I found that time from my perspective was much longer. Not that my life was moving slowly, but that in the span of one year, it felt like no less than three had passed for me. Other people would comment from time to time how the opposite was true for them. 'The past year just flew by!' They would say. I would just smile and not respond. I had a secret that they probably couldn't even understand.