| by: | Linda |
| date: | 12 November 2009, 5:22 AM |
| preliminary remark: | This is my email to a loving mother who hosted me for a week in the unsettled weather. |
Dear J,
At present moment I am in Duncan, Vancouver Island; shall head towards south shortly. For want of sufficient time, let me give a quick answer to your question—How do I know someone in Kamloops?
Before my departure, someone suggested me to sign up for a website that connects touring cyclists around the globe, called WarmShowers (a similar site for all travellers is CouchSurffing). Members of WS provide hospitality for other travelling members and receive hospitality when it is their turn to travel. I have to find my way in rural areas but in big centres I can always find a place to stay.
Usually members are themselves cyclists, and very often have experienced amazing hospitality during their travel that they want to do unto others what has been done unto them. (There are, of course, some who sign up simply to enjoy traveller’s companion: the couple I met in Kamloops love accommodating travellers so much that they are on WarmShowers, CouchSurffing, and WWOOF—World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.) I definitely think the best decision I have made for my journey is to join WS. I would not have enjoyed my journey as much if others cyclists had not shared with me their own stories and given me many insightful suggestions; plus I learn to trust and appreciate to be trusted. The story of the young couple with whom I stayed in Vancouver, for instance, is beyond common expectation: they met each other outside of Hope, BC, 5 years ago when they were on their own separate way biking across Canada, then liking one another well, they decided to get married one year ago and their honeymoon was a bike ride from Vancouver to the end of South America.
Through WarmShowers I find a fellow in Victoria who can help me packing my bike and trailer; a ride to the airport may be possible for he chances to work 5 minutes outside of the airport. I would love to meet your parents if they do not object my visit (I want to know what kind of people can be called ‘loving’); my flight is scheduled on the 17th of Nov, there should be enough of time for me to contact them, unless I am caught in bad weather or car accident (as I had experienced both in the past few days).
Special thanks to you and your family: your family dynamics is among my favourites. The naturalness of your behaviour, the children’s lack of affectation and pretence, made me feel so much at home that I felt being a part of you during my stay. I have experienced several times this feeling of belonging to my host family in my travel previously—in Nova Scotia, Sherbrooke (QC), Thunder Bay (ON)—and lament at the mournful fact that I have no might to overturn the bare necessity of leaving.
Thinking carefully, the word ‘pilgrimage’ may be too difficult for a 5-year old child to comprehend—most adults cannot seize its meaning when I remark to them that my journey should be more properly called a pilgrimage rather than a bike trip or adventure. I have always thought, the single valid justification of our deed is passion: to pursue the proper goal toward which all human endeavour is directed, one needs no more and no less than passion. By passion I certainly do not mean that unruled passion which can bring the most terrible evil in the world; by passion alone, and passion pure and solemn, I mean that pure authentic inner impulse towards a particular course of action. It may be said that my passion for learning, knowing, seeking exceeds my passion for biking, touring, travelling (which I do enjoy, if only to a smaller degree of enjoyment). That is why I prefer to designate my journey as a pilgrimage or a quest of something beyond the attainable.
Maybe one of your children will one day hear the calling to part for a long journey in search of some exalted purpose.
Linda
LINDA’S ARTWORLD 