The Friendship Trail bike path from Fort Erie to Port Clebourne is a cycling paradise. It is flat; as flat as the earth before Copernicus. It is straight; so straight if human eyesight was good enough you could see along its 17 mile length. It is smooth like a baby’s bottom. It is surrounded on both sides by gorgeous verdant greenery. It is solely for the use of cyclists and an occasional jogger. It is rarely interrupted. It is OH MY GOD IT HURTS TO STARE DIRECTLY INTO THE PERFECTION IT GLOWS LIKE THE SUN MAKE IT STOP TURN IT OFF
OK, OK I exaggerate. But I’ve never done 17 miles faster on my bicycle, ever. Were I try to design a bike path I could not do a better job. And yet, somehow it left me dissatisfied. What is it about us humans, and me in particular, that wants things to be a little bit dirty, a little bit crooked, a little bit…broken? Why can’t we be happy with things that are just right? I’m reminded of a sketch from Mystery Science Theater 3000, one of my favorite TV shows. The “kids” in the show are complaining about how the encyclopedias they have are incredibly old and out of date, so “dad” goes and buys them brand spankin’ new ones. And their comment is telling: when asked if things are better now, their response is “No…no, actually we really enjoyed complaining. Yeah, complaining was more fun.”
I think there’s an answer to this. In addition to the other purposes I have in life, like love, I feel like one of the main reasons I was put on this earth was to learn things. There’s a Buddhist myth that I like which says that everyone of us is just an aspect of Shiva (God) which He/She/It takes on in order to learn something new about what it’s like to be human. And I do feel that way sometimes, like I’m learning things…for what? I’m not sure. But for some reason. Anyway, to learn things, I feel like I have to be challenged, have to have puzzles to solve. I guess that’s an engineer thing (although there’s a chicken and egg thing in there somewhere). A perfect bike path reveals nothing, except that Fort Erie sure knows how to build a hell of a bike path. I learned, really, nothing about the area, about myself, about cycling, except maybe how fast I can go under near-perfect conditions.
Anyway. Canada is really nice. One thing that was surprising to me was the level of patriotism. The place is practically drowning in Canadian flags. I would not have guessed that. People are happy to be here.
Whatever this drive for puzzle-solving is, it’s the same thing that made me leave the warm comfort of my uncle’s place for pitching this tent in the dark while being eaten by mosquitos (when will I learn to pitch my tent before it’s dark out?). I could be eating a home cooked meal instead of these Tim Horton’s donuts (although i do love Tim Horton’s donuts. All other donuts are like shadows of the One True Donut). But the fact is, the 36 hours I spent with my Uncle, I didn’t do anything. I learned some things about my family, and it was awesome to see my Uncle, but I basically stuck myself in neutral for a little bit - which is fine, once in a while, but I like motion and challenge and accomplishment, and laying on my Uncle’s couch watching American Ninja Warrior doesn’t cut it for long. So awaaaaay we go!
