It's all in your mind...

From Mike-
     Five years ago I was in a small hotel in Agra, working my way through a bowl of warm-ish cereal  ("This is fresh milk?"  "Oh, yes! Very fresh...")  and choosing to believe I'd get back to Delhi in one piece.  I had rented a Baja 150 motorcycle, and the ride down included a near head-on collision with a bus, puttering along with herd of goats, and allowing an elephant right of way at a roundabout coming into Agra.  The sky was overcast and already the temp was topping ninety.
     At the table next to me were an American couple who were in the fourth month of a one year jaunt around India and possibly China.  We exchanged pleasantries.  They told me about their trip so far, and I shared with them what I was doing in Delhi (facilitating an educational experience for American teachers in the Indian Kendriya Vidyalaya school system.)  The couple were newly retired and in no hurry to get anywhere.  It was a pleasant hotel courtyard, we had both seen the Taj the day before, and so we fell into that intimacy which comes from people of similar cultures finding themselves in strange surroundings, and with the knowledge they will almost certainly never see each other again. There was no reason to be anything but candid.  And here's what came out:  They were both very envious of my position.  Of my having a job (of sorts) in this strange place, and needing to be someplace where people were counting on me.  I, on the other hand, was eyeing their dusty backpacks and frayed travel clothes.  I was listening as they mulled over their next destination...thinking maybe they'd just stick around Agra for another day. And I so wanted to be them.
     We said goodbye, I jumped on the bike, threw up midway back (the milk was decidedly not fresh) and finally crawled into my hotel in Delhi. They, presumably, continued on with their travels and their dreams.  End of story.  But not really. 
     I've since reflected on our exchange, and have decided to do battle with the oddly modern circumstance of other-ness.  Of looking out at what the next fellow is doing, and finding it powerfully more compelling than one's own experience.  And so my hope in writing this blog is to find the worth in where I am on any given day, hour, or minute.  Probably my need for something of-the-moment is driven by the endless planning, the what-ifs, the eventualities that loom like fog just beyond the bow. We'll see how it goes.