GHETTO BIKING

BICYCLING FOOLS

I'm in Boise, Idaho, bicycling from Portland to western Wyoming with 5 friends!

I parted with my Jesus Christian wandering tribe to hook up with 6 of my Portland friends (mostly quasi-Buddhists), and we are bicycling to the Rainbow Gathering in Wyoming. One dropped out after a couple days for health reasons. We are half-way there. And we're on ghetto bikes; a motley tribe we are! And I'm the old man of the group & never did a long-dist bike trip before. Doing pretty good, I'd say. So fun, so spectacular.

We're basically following the Oregon Trail route. We went along the Columbia River, then down eastern Oregon to Boise. Now we head south of the big mountain range across Idaho to Wyoming.

THE SINCERITY OF ACCEPTED POVERTY IS INFINITE WEALTH

These friends are also spiritual seekers, living practically moneyless. Actually, I think Jose (the former Jesus Christian) is totally moneyless - perhaps the first person ever to join me in going totally moneyless! He says he's agnostic, but I often think he's the most spiritual. He's so human, with no pretensions of being spiritual. No religious trappings, like I find my own self falling into.

It's interesting going from one traveling spiritual community (Jesus Christians) to another (quasi-Buddhist) and seeing the similarities in dynamics. I'm in love with human sincerity, and it is overflowing in both groups, despite a few usual tensions that come up in "spiritual" communities.

"POVERTY IS MY PRIDE"

I have had struggles in the past about having a website describing this moneyless lifestyle. People told me I was boasting. I doubted, then zapped it. A few years later folks told me I should publish it again, and I resisted, struggling with doubts about what is boasting, what is not.

It's a critical time. Greed is destroying our souls and our environment - our spiritual and physical health. When the British are coming, Paul Revere has to holler through the streets. Is he trying to get attention for himself or is he a messenger giving warning? Who the hell cares - the British are coming. Let Paul Revere toot his horn. You can waste your energy debating my motives, which may or may not be pure, if you like. Meanwhile, greed is descending on us to swallow us up.

My conscience is settled now.

All of you who are weak, are poor, are debased at the bottom of this greed-ridden society, boast in your poverty, I say. Boast in it! Blow your horn!

"On my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weakness."
(2 Corinthians 12:5)

"Faqr fakhri"
"Poverty is my pride"
(--Muhammad)

Confession

This was my last comment, my confession, in my last blog entry. I feel it's important, in order to absolve whereever & however this blog is going:

"When two (or more) people argue, both sides are wrong. When two people argue, neither is interested in learning new truth from the other but in being right. This is not a discussion but an argument, and futile, so I confess my part in arguing and I back out. If both sides had truth as the goal, both would come to agreement, always, always, always. And there would be love and no condescension to the other. May love prevail. Nothing else matters. Nothing."