Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Better cause
@9:27 PM
Last week, when visiting the bike shop, I met two experienced men who, unlike me, know exactly what they were talking about when they talked about touring. Rather than discourage me, they persuaded the uptaking of a new perspective: attempting the tour for charitable causes. It was David (old enough to be my father) who came up with the sucker punch argument that the completion of a desire has no fulfilment:
"Let us take this beer mug as an example: let's say that you suddenly decided to drink the entire mug of beer in one go. Even though you know that maybe after drinking it, you will vomit, but you challenge yourself anyway, to see if you can finish it. So you drink it, and you indeed vomit afterwards. Or, even if you did not vomit, what has completing the challenge given you? Nothing. Rather than feeling good, you will probably feel empty and sick afterwards, knowing that you disappointed and worried the people around you by risking your safety for you own selfish reasons.
"But if you do it for a good cause, ah, by undertaking such a punishing venture, you are benefitting others, not just for yourself. At the end of it all, ten, twenty years down the road, you can look back and feel accomplishment not for the success of the attempt, but for having done it and helping others in the process."
I agreed. The entire conception of the tour has now drastically altered: rather than going it alone, I will be enlisting the help of many. Sponsorship, publicity, charity drive, all these avenues will have to be approached and tested as part of the push. Once I consider all the possibilities and also all the things that have yet to be done, time has suddenly reared its head as the foremost concern. 5 months and 8 days left before the start of the adventure.
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