Customizing is a way of growing together, man and machine. Accessorizing is a hallmark of mankind. Baubles and beads. My latest accessory is my education. Soon, by May of 2012, I will have obtained my first Bachelors degree. I will then accompany it with a certification to teach History in the state of Texas. A bachelors degree opens up the world to me, I may move to China to teach English, maybe Korea. I sent off for my passport yesterday in anticipation for the coming opportunities. I stare at the world through my computer screen. I read about it in books but the experiences have yet to meet me, to meld man and world-for us to grow together. With a degree I will release one of the many leashes that ties me to the land. I replace it with the debt of an education, but my debtors, in their infinite generosity are happy to accept my payments from wherever I may reside.
The motorcycle, the degree, they both feed this need to run. Not away. But run. I'm racing away from my own mortality, to see, to feel, to experience all this world is hiding in its many corners, to accessorize my thoughts with the experiences of a world filled with possibilities. I realize that everyones heart does not ache the way that mine does. That the lure of the unexpected and the unexplained are not as enticing and seductive for some as they are for me. I believe the world is calling me to far away places, to exotic food and dangerous women. At times it calls me with a whisper and other times, like today, it is a raucous din of which I cannot describe. London, Edinburgh, Morocco, Senegal, Melbourne, Moscow, Prague, Buenos Aires, Honk Kong, Tokyo and every road in between call out to me. I'm listening and I'm hurrying and I ache for you just as you ache for me dearhearts. Be patient, I will race across your blacktop in time and breathe in your air, I will marvel at your vistas and swim in your streams. We were made for each other after all and not even the devil can keep us apart.
