Explore,+Dream+And+Discover

“Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all — young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth… But one creature said at last, ‘I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom. The other creatures laughed and said, ‘Fool! Let go, and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed against the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom! But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more. And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried ‘See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies! See the Messiah come to save us all!’ And the one carried in the current said, “**I am no more messiah than you. The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.**” But they cried the more, ‘Savior!’ all the while clinging to the rocks, and when they looked again he was gone, and they were left alone making legends of a Savior.” Well, most of us are clinging to our own twigs and rocks in our daily lives because clinging to them to death is all about survival and clinging to anything saves us from the agonizing pangs of existence and helps us to steer to the light of survival in the complex mazes of life. It eases our pains and anxieties without healing them completely. In fact, out of sheer fear, most of us prefer to live like corpses in our safe daily coffins, as we cannot imagine living to death in the wilderness of ever popping opportunities of life. In the pursuit of safety, twigs are like walking in the same side of the pavement, sitting in the same seat on transport, talking with the same people, eating the same things, looking at the same side from the service bus, looking at the same side of life. However, we should get rid of our personal twigs and rocks to be free for opening our minds for a different view! That’s why the above extract from **The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach** occurs to my mind, whenever somebody talks about biking. I feel something mysterious in that story allures me from within! It allures me to leave everything that I have clung tightly! Maybe it sounds exciting to leave all the twigs that are enfolded from the deepest caves of fear. And I remember my friends like Gizem Altin Nance and her husband Bryan Nance who throw off the yoke of their material twigs and rocks they have collected throughout their lives! While they were living, working and following their career plans in the west coast of America and at their spare times surfing on the Pacific Ocean, someday a strange feeling alienated them from their daily routines. They decided to give up everything. The first thing they did was to quit their jobs. The second thing was to sell their house, car and all their belongings. The third thing was to buy two bicycles. By their bicycles, they started their own Odysseus Journey against Climate Change from the West Coast to the East Coast, from Pacific to Atlantic. They continued their journey from Europe to Istanbul. After a while in Istanbul, they hit the road again in 2007 to ride from Istanbul to China. Their final destination was Australia. But on the way to China she had a terrible traffic accident. After a couple of bloody weeks in Kazakhstan, she was managed to be taken back to Turkey. For them, biking is something like it was peeling off from the fake plastic social ties and to great extent it sounds like an expression of the freedom of our planet. On the other hand, it makes one feel the agonizing environmental pains which are full to the brim in our sweet home Earth to whom we really debted! All the Rumi’s way down through those pains and agonies of our planet on the road, they were raw, then they got cooked, now they are burned to be able to purify themselves and become dust, so that from dust, their flowers could grow! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Doesn’t biking on new places sound great? But most of us get scared to death from freedom as in the story. As the people like Milan Kundera say happiness is the longing for repetition, freedom looks dangerous and pricey thing at most of the time. Freedom away from the boredom of repetition causes the unbearable lightness of being. But everybody needs lots of fresh air and that unbearable lightness! This reminds me of Hazerfen, the Jack of all trades of his age, on the top of Galata Tower who was born to be free and ready to fly with the unbearable lightness of fresh air in his lungs! He was at 66 meters high and leaves himself to fly! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Imagine you were about to hit a very long road on your bike from the Galata Tower in Istanbul to Johannesburg in Africa. Wouldn’t it be fantastic? On the road you would meet different people in different places which could broaden your mind to different worlds. I imagine I was going to far lands on a bike to digest the unknown. At this point, remembering **Mark Twain** and saluting his genius, I say: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">“Twenty years from now I will be more disappointed by the things that I didn’t do than by the ones I did do. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">So throw off the bowlines. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Sail away from the safe harbor. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Catch the trade winds in my sails. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Explore. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Dream. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">And discover!”

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #404040; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Deniz Postaci 2011