I try to be careful now, but I seem to be programmed to be car-full, instead. I’m so used to simply heading out fueled by mere intention, that I don’t always check the facts very closely. Sure, I could have called ahead. Or double-checked that website before leaving. Instead, I invested a couple of miles’ worth of shoe rubber and sweated through my belt. Living without necessarily learning anything.

My cars fueled ten thousand fishing expeditions, trips out just to see what I might scare up. Carlessness isn’t so friendly to this kind of speculative excursion, especially if you’re lugging a bike wheel and parts along with ya. They make repurposing awkward.

I’d intended to drop off the bike parts then route myself back ‘home’ via the library. Instead, I routed back home, then out into the sub-tropical afternoon to the library and back, with humility dripping down my back and through my shirt. My more efficient two-purpose plan collapsed when my first purpose failed me.

This experience feels very similar to writing with a pen on paper. When my purpose entails getting stuff out of my head, nothing beats pen and paper. If I need to re-purpose what I’ve written, like to share it on Facebook or something, I have to transcribe into another medium first, and that feels very inefficient because handwriting’s tough to repurpose.

Some days, carlessness seems like a step back into quill pen times. Thoughtfulness isn’t simply useful here, it’s pretty close to necessary. Clear confirmed purpose, not just fishin’, see?

©2012 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: Car-less