People say all kinds of things. When I was young, people told lots of stories about me. To this day, they continue. Perhaps the ones that made me feel the worst are when young boys would say, "You're gay." I assured them that I not only knew what that was, but also I was not. People seem to be predisposed to speak about others in their absence. This, in turn, can escalate after their death when no one is there to clear up misunderstandings or check their stories against facts. When I began going to school in Pennsylvania, stories circulated that I was some rock star's kid because I would come to school in a giant Cadillac with a chrome grille. Those stories were slightly more welcome, but equally unfounded. Some of the stories I have heard about myself made me laugh, shocked and amazed me. some stories even defied logic, but they were about me nonetheless.
Being from Springfield, Illinois you can probably guess that everyone's favorite folk hero was Abraham Lincoln. The stories that have circulated about him have taken on mythic proportions. I'm sure many of the exaggerations were by well meaning fans, but especially after his death, stories didn't really have to be true. In fact, making him what we needed was probably the most salient fact in all the stories. How would we reconcile the fact that this man authorized the largest mass murder of non-combatant Native Americans in history? How could we square the fact that the Great Emancipator got slaves as a wedding present? I do not doubt that in many ways Honest Abe exuded integrity, the story of him walking five miles to return a penny that he inadvertently overcharged, well perhaps the story is only an approximation of fact. I'm not saying his motives were flawed, but perhaps he combined trips because back then, walking five miles was not that unusual, especially for a man with inordinately long legs.
What seems like a very difficult problem, or circumstance pales when examined with the light of the original experience. Honesty and integrity are always in high demand, whatever our political situation seems to say. I understand that these traits need a heroic figure to make them seem worthy, but trumping up stories to give them more impact is still a lie. I'm sure that a thousand stories or more have been told, just about my bicycle ride around the Great Lakes. none of them conveyed the true meaning of the ride, or could possibly capture the whole story, but in my travels I tried to be clear and concise as possible when describing what the ride meant to me. I told everyone that my goal was to help them by teaching ways to live more lightly on the Earth. Living better for less is what I called it.
The obvious questions people had when I got back were, How far is that and how long did it take?
4,280 miles by the road signs, but they lie and eighty days were my responses. Who, Tony C. Saladino. What, Rode his bicycle around the Great Lakes. Where, Around the Great Lakes! When, Between April first and June nineteenth, 1987. Why, To teach people how to live more lightly on the Earth, or live better for less. These were the salient points of the overall story,but within that there are stories told about how i inspired someone to go back home and take responsibility for their young family and bringing them up right. Stories of how I offered to taker people on the road with me, stories about how they helped a traveler and were able to hear stories of my ride, how a fellow dropped by their campsite one night and burned his winter jacket rather than have to ride on with it.
One day alone i spoke by radio to over six million Canadians, even if only one in six hundred mentioned what I said that morning, there were a thousand stories that day alone! It is my goal and desire to fit twelve and a half stories a day into the book about my bike ride around the Great Lakes. I'm sure that there were easily that many things happening in any particular day. Things worth telling stories about, things that have left a lasting legacy on my life.
I'm sure that the ride sounds mythic to some. In fact it was epic, but in two and a half moons I was on fire, doing what I do best...teaching and learning every step of the way. Some of the things I learned, I wish I hadn't like when I went through a town that said they liked their local paper mill because they found a way to clean up their river...then the next day I rode on to find that the mill had just piped their effluent into the next river over, bypassing the first town whose water they poisoned. I wish that I had not seen the smog hanging over my city the day I left, nor the orange brown skies over the south end of Lake after lake after lake. By the time I made it to Ontario (the furthest from my home) I was appalled to see the grim smog hugging the North shore of the lake as well. As many stories as I have about heart wrenching truths, there are also many more stories of liberation, of realization and of understanding along the way. The book i have written about this journey will include a thousand stories of a man, but it is in my own voice, not to be sentimental, but to be reflective of what my experiences along the way were like and because it has taken so long to write, how the things I learned on those brief eighty days have shaped the rest of my life. Some are loathe to admit that events have changed their lives, but I revel in it. Each choice we make shapes us. whether the outcome is eighty seconds, eighty hours, or eighty days away.
Being from Springfield, Illinois you can probably guess that everyone's favorite folk hero was Abraham Lincoln. The stories that have circulated about him have taken on mythic proportions. I'm sure many of the exaggerations were by well meaning fans, but especially after his death, stories didn't really have to be true. In fact, making him what we needed was probably the most salient fact in all the stories. How would we reconcile the fact that this man authorized the largest mass murder of non-combatant Native Americans in history? How could we square the fact that the Great Emancipator got slaves as a wedding present? I do not doubt that in many ways Honest Abe exuded integrity, the story of him walking five miles to return a penny that he inadvertently overcharged, well perhaps the story is only an approximation of fact. I'm not saying his motives were flawed, but perhaps he combined trips because back then, walking five miles was not that unusual, especially for a man with inordinately long legs.
What seems like a very difficult problem, or circumstance pales when examined with the light of the original experience. Honesty and integrity are always in high demand, whatever our political situation seems to say. I understand that these traits need a heroic figure to make them seem worthy, but trumping up stories to give them more impact is still a lie. I'm sure that a thousand stories or more have been told, just about my bicycle ride around the Great Lakes. none of them conveyed the true meaning of the ride, or could possibly capture the whole story, but in my travels I tried to be clear and concise as possible when describing what the ride meant to me. I told everyone that my goal was to help them by teaching ways to live more lightly on the Earth. Living better for less is what I called it.
The obvious questions people had when I got back were, How far is that and how long did it take?
4,280 miles by the road signs, but they lie and eighty days were my responses. Who, Tony C. Saladino. What, Rode his bicycle around the Great Lakes. Where, Around the Great Lakes! When, Between April first and June nineteenth, 1987. Why, To teach people how to live more lightly on the Earth, or live better for less. These were the salient points of the overall story,but within that there are stories told about how i inspired someone to go back home and take responsibility for their young family and bringing them up right. Stories of how I offered to taker people on the road with me, stories about how they helped a traveler and were able to hear stories of my ride, how a fellow dropped by their campsite one night and burned his winter jacket rather than have to ride on with it.
One day alone i spoke by radio to over six million Canadians, even if only one in six hundred mentioned what I said that morning, there were a thousand stories that day alone! It is my goal and desire to fit twelve and a half stories a day into the book about my bike ride around the Great Lakes. I'm sure that there were easily that many things happening in any particular day. Things worth telling stories about, things that have left a lasting legacy on my life.
I'm sure that the ride sounds mythic to some. In fact it was epic, but in two and a half moons I was on fire, doing what I do best...teaching and learning every step of the way. Some of the things I learned, I wish I hadn't like when I went through a town that said they liked their local paper mill because they found a way to clean up their river...then the next day I rode on to find that the mill had just piped their effluent into the next river over, bypassing the first town whose water they poisoned. I wish that I had not seen the smog hanging over my city the day I left, nor the orange brown skies over the south end of Lake after lake after lake. By the time I made it to Ontario (the furthest from my home) I was appalled to see the grim smog hugging the North shore of the lake as well. As many stories as I have about heart wrenching truths, there are also many more stories of liberation, of realization and of understanding along the way. The book i have written about this journey will include a thousand stories of a man, but it is in my own voice, not to be sentimental, but to be reflective of what my experiences along the way were like and because it has taken so long to write, how the things I learned on those brief eighty days have shaped the rest of my life. Some are loathe to admit that events have changed their lives, but I revel in it. Each choice we make shapes us. whether the outcome is eighty seconds, eighty hours, or eighty days away.
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