no fear

10

Nov

crusin down a 7% grade for a few miles, prince blaring in my ears, fresh off a mega monster climb i got to thinkin.  fear? it no longer exists.

after 4 weeks with the broads (after meeting up in portland oregon, post traumatic thumb injury, Fuuuck) i’ve learned not to fear.  mostly its the hills (tho other stuff too).  we’ve come to a point now, where its all the same.  yeah sure some kill you a little more than others, but it has more to do with the amount of calories you have in your body to burn than anything.  if powered up enough, we all zooom up.  take a big gulp of water at the top, and then in for a fucken-delightful tear jerking (from the wind whipping in your eyes) kinda downhill thrill ride.  its fun.

as an introductory post to this clan-blog-land, just want to suggest a big fist up and bump to all of the broads.  we can now climb up mountains and push through some rough terrain with 40 plus lbs on our bike like it aint no thing.  pretty awesome feeling.  you should check out our legs.  anyways.

… since we took off the occupy movement has spread all over.  i kept thinkin the spark started back in Madison Wi, last Feb with the uprising at the capitol but was unsure what it all meant.  its clear now something big is brewing.  seeing all the small town Occupies, especially in Oregon and northern california, folks all over honking their horn at orlas big 99% sign strapped the back of her bike, coming up to us and striking up conversation about what this all means, feels pretty big.  coming into Oakland on the same day as their first General Strike since 1946, hearing warnings up to 20 miles away about whether we could board the public transport or even get to Oakland because they were really shutting stuff down…its incredibly exhilarating.

in Oakland its big.  I spent an afternoon cruising all over.  looked at the smashed windows, then boarded up of Wells Fargo, felt an incredible amount of…well…sounds cheesy, but—solidarity, with people in the streets, attended the open forum at the Occupy where a vigorous debate (really, a sorta processing and coolin off of what had happened the day before) anarchists, versus peaceful protest versus sometimes smash stuff but please think tactics, but in the end, how beautiful.

somehow this relates to fear…who knows where this occupy stuff is going, i mean its been inspiring to see it happening all the way down the coast, but what is wonderful is seeing that fear wipe away, people going out, confronting police, confronting bosses, confronting politicians…its a big step. who knows where we can go from here.  just gotta keep pushin through up those hills.

-IJ, in Monterrey.

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