Ah, back to civilization. A hard 40 miles took me down out of the wilderness and across Highway 21 and then through Boise. It was a challenging ride but not particularly interesting so I won’t dwell on it except to say that everytime I end up back in civilization it’s an interesting transition. Physically you start to see more and more evidence of humans, and your brain goes into this weird place where suddenly these things that you took for granted, like coffee shops and strip malls and watered lawns, feel extremely odd and out of place. But then the feeling fades and you end up in the Boise airport on your laptop waiting for your flight.
What are my main takeaways from the trip? First, that I need to have more male friends. Sitting out in the woods with another kind, gentle man for a week was a really good experience. I love my women friends but I need more male energy in my life. We shot the shit about politics and life and love and everything. Also, I learned a lot about how I will approach mountain biking as a hobby. I didn’t hate it, I didn’t love it, it was a mixed bag, but I think I will be much better prepared for my next trip. I further cemented my mixed feelings about bikepacking; I just don’t really enjoy carrying all my camping gear on the bike.
The last night, I listened to a talk by Timothy Snyder that really stuck with me, possibly because I was in the right frame of mind to be receptive to it because of the week in the wilderness. He spoke about the idea of “freedom to” as opposed to “freedom from”, what he called “positive freedom” instead of “negative freedom”. “Freedom from”, or negative freedom, is the idea that to be free we need to remove obstacles. Freedom from tyranny, freedom from patriarchy, freedom from racism. But what he speaks eloquently about is that freedom only means something if we use it to do something; that’s the “freedom to” part. He then goes on to talk about values, and how they are real things that we can use our freedom to work towards and choose between. And it’s true; what matters is not that we are literally without barriers; what matters is what we choose to do with our freedom.
