Open Mind Open Heart

Seeking friends and ideas is the basis of an excellent education. I used everything I could lay my hands on. I learned from posters, newspapers, magazines and books to college classes, research papers, videos, maps and charts building my knowledge of the Great Lakes before I rode my bicycle around these freshwater seas. The book learning and what most folks would consider study taught me less than one percent of what I learned over the eighty days that it took to pedal around their basins.

I did have things to teach along my path, but what I learned dwarfed the messages that I shared with over six million people through radio, newspapers, television and the many hundreds more that I met face to face. Spiritual questing often requires at least some travel. Changing our location almost always changes our perspective in unusual ways. Not only do we see things from the perspective of others, but if we travel far enough, we can look back on where we were and begin to perceive our own blind spots. My mission when I took out on the 4280 mile ride was to share basic principles of living in harmony with the planet, living higher qualities of life at drastically lower cost. I had already spent ten years learning to live on next to nothing and the richness with which I was rewarded funded my ride.

Back then, I drank a fair amount of beer. Zymurgy, the art and science of cultivating yeast-fermented fluids had started as a curiosity and developed into a hobby. I had inadvertently discovered that instead of paying a dollar per bottle of beer, I could do a small amount of labor, and have larger bottles for just fifteen cents! Typically, a friend and I would share a tasty treat. Sharing a single home- crafted liter was way more satisfying than drinking several bottles of commercial swill. Prior to learning this skill, I would drink twice as much and enjoy it far less. The things that I have always felt the best using have had a large dose of human effort locked up in them and usually less material in general.

The giving of one's spirit to the creation of objects is one of the most primal urges known to mankind. Loving things into existence is also one of the most rewarding things we can do as humans. I appreciate many of my possessions because they "speak" to my heart. I also get a thrill when others who enjoy them can be gifted with objects that reflect this human, giving nature. As I travel, I am always looking to what others are willing to share about themselves and how they live as a matter of course. One of the most common complaints that I hear in my travels is that people wish that they could just do the things that make them happy and not have to "go to work". This calls to mind a serious question. What do I love to do?

Love really does mean letting go of fear. If there was no need to support your local banker, car dealer, or gas station, what would you rather do? This is the open mind part. Most of us have a really difficult time even asking this question. We immediately fall under the spell of the internal voice saying "*I have to be responsible! What about my mortgage? Who will make payments to my retirement fund and how will I keep up my insurance?" Fear, fear, fear. Really using our imagination requires letting go of these and ever more invisible bonds. The things that tie us to old ideas and old ways of seeing the world need to be suspended if we are to ask the question honestly, or begin to find our way to the answer.

A wise friend has put it this way. Find what speaks to your heart and soul. Look critically at the world and find out what you feel the most strife over. The greatest injustice as it were. I cannot say what will get your juices flowing, but you will know because the awareness of whatever it is will create an unquenchable fire in your heart. Your humanity itself will be mobilized in defense of your ideals. The solution to whatever problem it might be might not be clear at first, but once you dedicate yourself to studying the "problem" you will know what needs to be done. Once you grasp the issue and take steps to make things right, your true purpose will begin to unfold.

My own drive comes from making the world a better place for everyone. I have worked through the entertainment industry, the environmental community, peace and social movements and the food industry, helping to run a natural food co-op. Each way that I tried to work for peace and justice had more rewards than I could count with money. Each job that I have taken was for the benefit of others. The benefits to myself were collateral. When you travel through the world, remember, God/ess resides in all of us. Our greatest teachers are often found in unexpected places and we only gain through selfless giving.

Tune in. Turn on. Drop out.
This phrase was nearly worn out during the hippie days. We have probably all "heard" it, however very few understand it and fewer still actually know how to share the wisdom that lives in these six words. Tuning our sensory apparatus to recognize what really matters is what the first part is about. Focusing our attention on truth has the power to change what we are able to see. Get in touch with what moves your soul is what the second part refers to. It was misrepresented by the media as a reference to taking acid, specifically to prevent the "revolution" that could not be televised. Dropping out was a call to those that were falling into the trap of wage slavery. Walk away, become your truest self. Travel. Learn what really matters from real people, not books, not the academy, not the suits who still rule our lives. I love the "suits" that I deride enough to follow the wisdom of an old IWW slogan, which uses the suits of cards to help us remember their words:
A capitalists "heart" is in their pocketbook,
He holds a "club" over you,
So he can wear "diamonds".
Give him a "spade", so he can earn an honest day's wage.