'Berg Bikes: My dream come true

Going into my senior year of college, I was pretty far ahead on my coursework. I had the option of graduating a semester early, but instead, I decided to stick around. I took a half course load for my last two semesters and spent the rest of my team working in the Chapel. My job there was to plan programs and events that contributed to students' religious and spiritual lives, with a special focus on social justice. It was a sweet gig! I put together a Fair Trade sale, a Genocide Awareness night, and a super-rockin' Alternative Spring Break trip to New Orleans.

I also put a lot of time and energy into putting together a proposal for a Muhlenberg Bike Share program. While this might not seem to align exactly with my job description, my boss (the College Chaplain) allowed me the latitude to work on this project. This may have had something to do with the fact that the Chaplain was the advisor for the college's cycling club (of which I was the president).

Anywho, I busted my ass trying to get this program off the ground. I researched different bike share programs around the world, and came up with a plan that suited our campus. I put together a proposal detailing where the bikes would be kept and how they would be checked out. I wrote up a budget with estimated costs. I drafted liability waivers and sent them to a lawyer to be vetted. I met with college administrators and staff. I was on my A-game.

Sadly, and despite my best efforts, I left Muhlenberg in the Spring of '08 without seeing my plan come to fruition. I was disheartened, but I passed my plans along to an underclassman on Student Council in the hope that one day there might be a bicycle lending program at my alma mater.

AND NOW THERE ARE 'BERG BIKES HANGING FROM THE SKY!

My friend Jacy sent me these pictures recently. Apparently, the college's Environmental Action Club (EnAct) took my plans and made this ish happen. I can't tell you what joy it brings me to see this project come into being. I am so proud of the students there who took an idea and made it a reality.

It just goes to show that even when something doesn't seem to work out, you never know what kind of impact you might have today, tomorrow, or even years later. So keep on kickin' it and spreading the love, because hey, there are BIKES HANGING FROM THE FREAKING CEILING!!!! :-)

McMinnville (in photographs)

No one can hear you scream in space, but who cares if you have ICE CREAM! Yum.

This is where I work. It's a bicycle shoppe!

This is where I do yoga with the ladies and the occasional gentlemen. Solidarity fellas!

This beautiful tree stands at the center of the McMinnville city park

City Hall (a little smaller than the one in Philly)

Balancing my life

Anyone who knows me well, knows that the idea of balance is important to me. It's a major part of my value system and my spirituality. I've even considered getting some symbol of balance permanently tattooed on my body, but for now that's just a fun thought.

I see the importance of balance everywhere, from the food pyramid, to training for a half marathon, to tending a garden, one thing holds true - it's important to try to maintain balance.

Today I attended a service at First UU in Portland. The sermon was entitled "Perfect Equilibrium", and as you might expect, it spoke to me. I thought the minister, who was visiting from All Souls in NY (what, what), had a strong central thesis.

He spoke of balancing in terms of desire. Sometimes we should fulfill our desire, and sometimes we should abstain. But how do we decide? We decide by asking ourselves what is going to further our values and ideals. If fulfilling our desire will contribute to our values and ideals, then we should give ourselves the green light. On the other hand, if giving into our desire will detract from our values and ideals, well then maybe we should stay put.

I found this framework helpful for me, and it sharpened my concept of balance. It also got me thinking, that while I've trumped up the idea of balance in my life, I haven't given it the full attention it deserves.

I've failed to create balanced relationships. I'm coming to realize that many of my relationships, be they romantic, platonic, or familial, are out of whack. Either I give to much and I let the other person slide without asserting myself, or I take advantage of someone else's generosity, without giving them the attention or honesty they deserve. Either way, I am doing the relationship a disservice. But as they say, awareness is the first step towards change. So here goes...

Random thought: Today I locked my keys in my car at the ultimate frisbee game in Portland. Luckily for me, a nice woman called AAA. Right before AAA got there, my new friend Lee gerry-rigged some wire and duct tape and opened the door - presto! And we told the AAA guy that his services were no longer required -sorry dude! The whole experience got me wondering though - will AAA break in to anybody's car?!?!? I'm almost tempted to find out.

LOANS!

Is anyone else out there totally freaked out by the idea of loans?!?!? I just requested to borrow $40,000 to pay for my education next year. That means I'll be borrowing $80,000 to get my Masters degree in Social Work. Holy shit. That's more money than I've made in the last twenty six years. I could buy 80 really nice bicycles for that money. I could buy a corvette. There's so much I could do with that money.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Unfinished Business?

I've been having weird dreams lately. I'm also listening to Britney right now, but that's besides the point!

A few weeks ago I dreamt about wrestling in high school. As a senior in high school I was a pretty good wrestler. I was team captain, and going into the county finals I was seeded first. Over the season I had compiled a record of 34-1, with my one loss coming to someone from outside the county. I easily made my way through the tournament bracket, making quick work of my competition. The county title was in my sights... and then it all fell apart. I got caught in a freak move, and fell behind 5-0. It was all downhill after that. I ended up losing the match 18-1, thus ending my high school wrestling career.

Then recently, I've been having another dream - this one related to college. As a senior in college I had to work with a group on a final project. Our project looked at the idea of implicit racism and it's effect on college students. I thought it was pretty great, but we had some trouble with the data analysis, and our argument wasn't as powerful as I would have liked. Now, I keep having this recurring dream that I have to present a final paper, and I haven't prepared anything.

Weird.

I don't know why these dreams of "unfinished business" are coming up now. Maybe I'm sleeping too much (is that possible?). Maybe with grad school looming in the not-so-distant future, I'm afraid of leaving more business unfinished?

Are there things in your life that feel incomplete or unfinished? How do you deal with them?

Lonliness

Moving to Mac from Philly has been an adjustment. In Philadelphia, I had a very full life. I lived in a house with other 20-somethings who were always down for a beer and some chit-chat. I played soccer (Los Tejones!), dodgeball (Mucho Mundo!), kickball (Kickball Corps!), ultimate frisbee, and tooled around town on my bike. I was a regular at the Farmer's Market, and would regularly see friends on walks around town. Most weekends, I had a few options for which party or potluck to go to.

And I left all that to live in McMinnville, OR for the summer.

Now I live in a house with some perfectly friendly 60-somethings , who spend there evenings glued to the t.v. (It's been 6 years now since I've lived in a place with a television). There are no rec. sports leagues in Mac. I can drive into Portland for a frisbee game, but it's a 2 hour drive round trip! Luckily, I've made a few friends here, and they are my saving grace. I've also become a regular at the local yoga studio, which gives me some peace of mind.

But I'm still pretty lonely. The cast of Glee and Grey's have sadly become my not-so-local bestie's.

Slowly, but surely, I'm carving out a life here for myself. But being away from Philly has made me appreciate my life back home. I didn't realize the importance of Philly's social institutions in my life until they were gone. I think all of us need social institutions (rec sports leagues, book clubs, music venues, church, whatever else might be your cup of tea...) to create opportunities for the meaningful human interaction that we all crave. It's seems to me that there's a dearth of social institutions in many our communities in the U.S., as more and more people live private and empty lives at home in front of their televisions and computers.

So, please, if you have the chance to, go out there and find a way to connect. Join a knitting or drumming circle. Invite that guy you met last week at frisbee out for a beer. We're all we got, so we might as well be friends.

And as for me, I'll roll up my sleeves and see if I can dig up a social life here in sleepy Mactown.

Happy Trails...

Emily is here! Emily is my friend from Philly, and I'm working for her dad this summer at Tommy's bike shop. I drove out to Emily's house this morning. Her parents bought the house about 20 years ago. At the time, it was a "fixer upper". Now, it's a little slice of paradise. See below...

On five acres of land in Carlton, OR they have a beautiful flower and vegetable garden, a stable with two horses and pasture, and even a HUMUNGOUS old cannon (strictly for ascetic purposes, don't worry). It's really inspiring to see what Pat and Robbie have built for themselves out there.

This is Breezy!

Emily and I drove into Portland to go trail running on the Leif Erikson and Wildwood trails. The trails were great, and the weather was perfect. I was wearing my newish Vibrams (toe shoes) and my poor feet took a beating on the rocky trails - but no matter. We ate lunch and then sat in the park watching little hippy kids play in the water.

Later on, I came back to Emily's house where we helped her mom in the garden before having a DELICIOUS dinner! What a perfect day!

Emily likes gardening

Thought for the day: Making shit is so much more satisfying than buying shit. :-)

Artsy Fartsy

I've been feeling really crafty lately... I was inspired to make this paper crane by my friend Sandy. She's on a mission to make a thousand paper cranes with inspirational words on them (check out her blog, it's awesome!). Sandy leaves these cranes in public places for strangers to discover. I left this one on a counter at the McMinnville Post Office. Thanks Sandy!

To date, I've made ten of these stylish bracelets. Nine have been sent out in the mail, and one is on my dresser. It's reminded me how fun it is to be crafty and has gotten my artistic blood pumping.

Philosophical rant for the day: We too often focus on what is right and wrong. What is good and what is bad. Rules, laws, protocol. But life is rarely so black and white. We live in the gray areas in between. We muddle through the fog of moral uncertainty as we trip over our mistakes and our misunderstandings.

This fog, while occasionally frustrating, is actually beautiful. It gives life the depth of complexity and mystery, without which our lives would be a whole lot less interesting. So squint your eyes a little harder, and try to see your way forward. Remember the potholes where you've tripped before, and be wary as you move ahead. But no matter how careful you are, everyone falls sometimes. The fog makes some snares nearly invisible. So go on ahead, tripping and stumbling your way through this crazy life. I'll be there tripping and falling right next to you, laughing, crying, and smiling all the way.

On Saturday, I went to a beach wrestling tournament in Pacific City, OR.

Wikipedia has this to say about beach wrestling:

"Apparently in a bid to give wrestling greater appeal to television audiences, FILA adopted beach wrestling as an official discipline during 2004–2005. Beach wrestling is standing wrestling done by wrestlers, male or female, inside a sand-filled circle measuring 6 meters (20 ft) in diameter with only two weight categories, heavy and light. The objective is to throw an opponent or take the opponent to their back. The wrestlers wear swimsuits rather than special wrestling uniforms. Wrestlers may also wear spandex or athletic shorts."

Even though there were only two other guys in my division, I had a great time.

Setting up a hip toss - check out that nasty under hook!

I won the tournament and brought home the gold sand dollar and $10 prize money!

The beach was breathtakingly beautiful.

I also spent some time this weekend at the McMinnville UFO Festival. Aliens, Chewbacca, tinfoil, and so many other bizarre things. Good times.

Turtle Island

"...Americans, through our constant striving for convenience , are eradicating the raucous and edifying beauty of our true environment and replacing the beauty with a safe but completely "faux" environment."

"...we are each given only one dazzling moment of life here on Earth, and we must stand before that reality both humbled and elevated, subject to every law of our universe and grateful for our brief but intrinsic participations within it."

I pulled these two excerpts from The Last American Man, by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I received in the mail from a very special lady (thanks Chrissy!). I started reading this book a couple of days ago, and I found that it resonated deeply with some of my strongest beliefs. The book describes the life and work of Eustace Conway, an extremely heroic and strange man. Eustace lives in the woods in North Carolina on a 100 acres of property, and is completely self sufficient - he hunts and gathers for his food, builds his own shelters, and walks the walk when it comes to sustainability and living in harmony with the natural world.

The words in this book conjured up a lot of emotions in me. I felt inspired to live a similar life, but also guilty for how disconnected I am from the earth and it's other inhabitants. So, late Tuesday night, about twenty-five pages in, I decided to do something about it. I did some research about Turtle Island, and decided to apply for one of their 14 month internships. I was going to live in the woods. Hunt. Farm. Sew my own deerskin moccasins and chop firewood and feel like a million bucks (dollars or deer). :-)

Screw grad school and a future full of fluorescent lights and boxes. I was going to LIVE.

I went to bed smiling, exhilarated by the idea of my newfound life aspirations. Then I woke up Wednesday morning, and there, in my Inbox, was a response from Turtle Island. There was a ton of information about the internship and an invitation to follow up.

Holy shit. This was real.

Once the initial excitement started to wear off, I started to become aware of the other side of the coin... I started to ask myself. Do I want to spend all day chopping firewood? Would I be satisfied with an agrarian lifestyle? I still felt strongly about reconnecting with the earth, but at what cost? I like hot showers A LOT. I like heating in the winter and AC (or at least a fan!) in the summer. I wasn't sure that I was ready to give up all of my creature comforts...

Basically, I realized that while I do want and need to live a life more closely aligned with natural processes and the web of all existence, I'm also cool with making a few... exceptions. And besides, not all modern advances are out-of-sync with the universe, or are necessary harmful to us. The printing press, sliced bread, and modern medicine (for the most part), are just a few of the welcome human advances that bring about a better quality of without doing damage to the environment. We don't need to throw about the baby with the bathwater. We don't even need to throw out the bath water, especially if it's nice and warm!

So I think you should read the book. Hopefully, you'll have a crisis of conscious. Go ahead, plant a vegetable garden, or maybe spend sometime WWOOFing , but I won't be mad at ya if you don't decide to give up hot showers. I know I can't.

Make Art, Not Trash

So the other day at work I was replacing a worn out chain on a snazzy little road bike, and I got inspired. I have seen a bunch of jewelry and art made of bike components popping up all over the place. It's so trendy. It screams "I'm green, I'm hip, I like bikes!" So of course I needed to have some, but I wasn't going to pay $10 for some old piece of scrap metal, no way!

So I took the old chain home, cleaned it up, and made some fly wrist ornaments. Isn't this one with the red chain bangin'? Yeah, well, IT'S MINE!

Don't worry, you can have one too! I've already starting making some for other folks, and they'll be going out in the mail soon.

Let me know if you want to sport your bicycle pride on your wrist, and I'll hook you up with some homemade love.

Till next time,

Miles

PS - I watched the documentary Gasland last night. It's about the harmful effects of drilling for natural gas through a process called "fracking". Really important film to see. Watch the film and then let your elected officials know that we shouldn't destroy the Earth and our drinking water. God, we are so fucking dumb!

Welcome!

Hello there, and welcome to my blog. I've been an admirer of my blogger friends for some time now, but never thought I'd join the club myself. I also never thought I'd end up in a little country town in Oregon with lots of free time to explore and contemplate, but here I am.

Isn't life full of surprises?

Before I get started, I'd like to give credit where credit is due. Tracey Abner, for being my bestie and introducing me to the world of blogging. Ms. Rachel Weis, who showed me the sunnier side of New York both through words and as my personal tour guide. And last but surely not least, Chrissy, whose optimism and spirit encourage me to be more awesome.

So here we are - on my blog (AH!). For starters, what a terrible word: BLOG. It reminds me of that old horror fim, I think it was called "THE BLOB". It's this terrible movie where this giant ball of muck goes around town enveloping everything in it's path: dogs, people, homes, the forest, etc... anyone know what I'm talking about?

Well, I don't want my blog to be a BLOB. So, let's call it something different: like my happy place (Billy Madison ref.), or my fasrah (yes, I just made that word up). Seems as though I haven't found a suitable alternative yet... any suggestions?

Whatever you choose to call this space: welcome! So far, I'm enjoying writing this shit. I hope you enjoy reading it. :-)

Come back soon now, y'hear?

peacefully yours,

miles