Operation zero commute
I’d like to setup a life where my commute time is basically zero.
As much as possible from home.
Work from home, gym from home, practice farming from home, community from home.
Everything walking or riding distance, the rest delivered.
I don’t even live in one of the cities known for its traffic and I’ve had enough.
Perhaps it’s my own impatience but traffic, even a small amount, drives me to the brink.
Walking and riding are pleasant.
My brother and I bought a house fifteen minutes walk from our family home.
Fifteen minutes walk to the waterfront too, a place I love to stroll.
Fourteen minutes too many.
Being in Amsterdam, the city is designed around the bike.
Riding from place to place fills one with a sense of adventure.
Like when I first learned to ride without training wheels.
Zero commute does not mean zero adventure.
The difference between commute and adventure is the sense of spontaneity.
I’m forming an allergy to timed events of any kind.
An anxiety starts to grow in me if I have an event on at a certain time.
I know such things must exist for logistic purposes…
The hands of time never stop ticking!
Don't worry, I'm well aware many things require a certain vibration of between two or more human beings in the same room at the same time.
I've done the thing often referred to as a job where you have to be at a certain place at a certain time and it's not for me.
But reading more about the indigenous way of life and spending time on a farm and learning about various Eastern philosophies, I find them tickling my inner curiosity.
As much as possible in the present.
The Buddha’s would laugh at the title of this post.
For the mere hint at this being an operation means effort is involved.
And trying to force the present, trying to force anything is a big no no.
But now I face the same dilemma trying to force myself into timed events.
I like going with the flow of things.
Working out interests me, walking interests me, reading interests me, writing interests me, programming interests me, cooking interests me, making love interests me, taking naps interests me, sitting around the table with my family interests me, gardening interests me.
Having to schedule any of these sucks the soul out.
A lack of schedule does not mean lack of discipline.
I’m free to plant seeds and gather fruit!
But planting seeds requires discipline.
The seed of discipline results in the fruit of skill.
I know to become a better programmer, I must write code and improve it.
To become a better writer, I must write words and edit them.
To become a better lover, I must practice love presence passion empathy caring.
However, even this is a double bind.
For how many people want to be loved knowing their partner must love them?
We want love to be spontaneous just as we want our activities to be spontaneous.
Aha!
Another tightrope of life reveals itself!
The tightrope between doing what interests you and what you must do.
And how beautiful it is when they line up!
To have no line between mundane and the divine. No line between everyday life and nirvana.
Operation zero commute is the lining up of interest and must.
Have everything which interests me within arms reach.
Yes that’s it!
Follow the natural flow of energy.
When I feel like writing, ride to the cafe and write.
When I feel like farming, walk to the backyard and tend to the garden.
When I feel like lifting weights, walk downstairs and enter the gym.
When I feel like spending time with the family, invite them over for tea or dinner or go visit.
As the Zen saying goes…
When walking, walk. When eating, eat.
My goodness!
How selfish could I be?
I haven’t even thought about what things will look like when I have children!
What about the children?!
My master plan… to do whatever I want when I want.
All of this from a simple wish to avoid a little traffic?
I must not be the only one!
Have I discovered the dream?
The dream so often dreamed in the West?
Pay full respects to the individual!
Let them be free by jumping from one set of handcuffs to a larger set!
Christ…
I’m overcomplicating this.
I’ve lost the plot.
Sitting at a red light, sneering, being sneered at, heat, noise.
For what?
There never was a plot…
Plus, you can’t lose what you never had!
I’m going for a walk. Maybe the big blue will make sense of this.
Fifteen minutes to the water.
Fourteen too many.