Please Make It All Go Away

On the boat to New Brunswick
June ’77 Pic ferry

The squish-squash of my feet, as I just went up to get my second cup
of coffee, reminded me that I started peddling at 7 a.m. this morning.
The harder I peddled the harder it rained. In order to catch the Digby
ferry I had to peddle in the rain for three hours. I made one stop
along the way. It was for coffee at a restaurant. A couple of other
cyclists were already inside and they motioned for me to come over to
their table. They were up from Maine for a two-week bicycle tour in
Nova Scotia. They had just arrived, so they hadn't experienced much
rain. The boy, across the table from me, had just started university
and was thinking about studying Philosophy. His parents didn't like
the idea, though. When I told him I was majoring in Philosophy, he
asked me, "What can you do with it?" I didn't want to get into that
conversation, so I said, "Nothing. Listen to your parents."


Now, getting back to why I'm leaving Nova Scotia. Feeling bad about
not being able to see the attractions had not been the worst of it.
Sure I could stick around and tour Cape Briton and Prince Edward
Island. Their beautiful I'm sure, but why? I have never been into
collecting experiences. Even in Hawaii, I didn't go to all of the
islands because it got to a point where I felt like I was collecting
experiences. That's not what it’s about, that's not the important
stuff. What's important was the learning. If I couldn't learn from my
adventures then I had no business "being there". This trip was not
born out of that kind of thinking. Rather, it was born out of the
opposite kind of thinking. It was conceived and finalized as a mere
exclamation point to the whole Castalian process. No higher
justification was needed. It was like going into same classroom over
and over again, sitting in the same seat over and over again, -- the
lecture begins and I don’t care why. Shame on me! Right from the start I
treated this trip as something to be done away with. My Castalian dream
wouldn't be complete unless I turned my free time into an
adventure--study in the winter, travel in the summer. Instead of
greeting each occasion as something to be achieved, I have turned all
occasions into something to be done away with. Except for the East
Coast, I have pretty much seen all the United States, but now the East
Coast is just another notch in my bicycle tire. If that's not
collecting experiences, I don't know what is! Everything about this
trip has been pure hypocrisy! Please, make it all go away.