Thoughts on this journey

Every sunday they close off the Paseo de la Reforma, one of the main roads in the city, so that people on bikes, roller blades, segways, or anything else with wheels can hang out and enjoy moving with the rest of the active city members.  So yesterday I rode my bike from the house where I´m staying to the center of the city for the fun of riding with everyone else.  All in all it ended up being a 6 hour ride for me.  It took me about 2 hours to get to Reforma because without a map And with a somewhat terrible sense of direction, it´s hard to navigate the tiny streets, alleys, and giant expressways that wind all over the city.  I stopped for a lot of directions, hauled my bike over a lot of pedestrian bridges, and went through a few tunnels but I finally got there.  I have to keep reminding myself that I´m not lost, there´s no possible way for me to be lost because I have nowhere in particular to be really.  It´s ok to wander the city all day wondering where I am, because really what else would I be doing?  This is a really strange way to go about living.  No matter where you go or how you live your life there are some things that tie living and reality together:  a routine of some sort, a goal or desire, and a home of one kind or another.  I think that one of my favorite things about travelling, and I don´t really mean travelling to a different country or even really far away but maybe more like shaking up your routine, is the kind of perspective it gives you on your own life and the nature of humanity.  So, in riding the streets of Mexico City, I think about my own routine, my own desires and goals, and my own reality.  Here I am, working to blend together the things that I want in my life, working hard to keep going, working to create something worth doing.  I´m not on vacation, I´m working.  I´m not making money, but I am making a living.  Work doesn´t have to look like a 9-5 sort of thing.   I contemplate the differnece between a prescribed lifestyle with set duties and obligations that come with choosing that kind of life, and the work and restlessness of making a different kind of life.  Both have their virtues and both have their downfalls.  Balance. It´s a good thing to think about while riding a bike.  And then, there´s the good old dilemma of privalege and ability to contemplate on top of it all.  I am privaleged and I am grateful.  I do the things that I do because of where I come from, because of the support that people offer me, and because I want to do them.  Everything is a big web where one piece is connected to all pieces and cannot be singled out completely.  Borders are imaginary.  Definitions are incomplete.  All of this is visible while I pedal through the streets, navigating the web of the city and contemplating the web of reality.  It´s easy to forget that it´s there.  I do the things that I do so that I don´t forget.


Here are some photos from these last couple of days.  I think tomorrow morning I´m going to get an early start and head for Pachuca de Soto.

 rojo

 

 botones!!!

 

 cafe tacuba

fiesta alguien?

 

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