Driving on a mountain road just outside of Mariposa, CA,
something big came to me. The
struggles, the beauty, the joy, and the hardships, the process of this journey,
is about disconnecting in order to reconnect. Flow. Making
space in my life, and in my heart, involves disconnecting from the old reality
so that I can reconnect with the new.
This book is based on the idea that we need to reconnect with nature,
with each other, and with ourselves in hopes of mitigating some of the social
problems we have created—climate change, pollution, social injustices, obesity,
and perhaps the most important one of all, insecurity.
Insecurity, financial or social, results in psychological
problems that reek havoc on creating community—hording, materialism, and
depression, just to name a few.
Insecurity determines whether a community is based on communalism or
individualism, a corporate-run capitalistic system versus some other ism, or
better yet, no isms at all but a system that takes into account the health of
this planet and its inhabitants.
Day 1
We left Venice with extra hugs for the road and started to
make our way north. Sometime just after dark, we successfully acquired our
first foraged food, or food-like product more accurately speaking, from a
little gas station outside of some tiny town off the 99. Behind the storefront window stood a
small tower of donuts of various flavors. I jokingly suggested that we get
some, and went in to use the bathroom. When I came outside, Andre was digging
donuts from the trashcan, and held up three for us to sample. The store clerk had come out with the
day olds, and before Andre could save them, they were tossed in. We each took a bite of the cinnamon
roll, then the red jelly glazed, and finally the chocolate frosted vanilla
custard (I took two bites of this one), then chucked them all back in the
bin. Donuts, America’s favorite
treat.
Erica, your writing is beautiful and truly inspiring. It makes me want to tour on my bicycle again! I agree that insecurity is one of our society's biggest problems and that it stems from the for profit, competitiveness that we are force fed throughout our lives. Please don't stop writing! I failed to keep up with my blog on my bicycle tour because it's really tiring sometimes to write, especially when no one seems to be commenting or reading. It matters so much though! That stream of consciousness in the moment. That feeling of the day. When you try to refer to it later, it's different.
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