Too much is really just fine

My brother Oliver is coming to the end of his incredible bicycling trip. He left Lausanne, Switzerland, on May 8, 2014 and on May 2, 2015 he is expected to arrive in Singapore, almost exactly one year later. 

I cannot express how proud of him we all are. I will always remember one day when I was home in Lausanne and I walked past Oliver’s room. The door was open and he sat in front of his computer. He had only recently come home from university. I remember asking him what he thought he wanted to do after university. I told him that I knew he was probably very bored - not to say irritated - that everyone else was asking him the exact same thing on almost a daily basis. He smiled and said he had a very good idea of what he wanted to do, but that it was probably silly. I asked him what it was and he said he wanted to cross Asia on bicycle. 

Unfortunately I don’t remember very well what I told him after hearing that. I would like to tell you that I said it was a great idea and that he should go ahead but I probably didn’t. I probably said it sounded like a pretty dangerous idea. Regardless, he went ahead and carefully planned the trip of a lifetime. 

During the first few months I would have terrible nightmares of bad stuff happening to him on that trip. If these were the dreams I was having, I don’t even want to think what our parents must have been going through. I think we all really started to understand, and feel comfortable, when Oli came home for Christmas. During that time we were able to hear first hand about his adventures. It was reassuring to hear how helpful everyone he had met were and that even though on a grand scale his project seemed immense, it was all about taking it one step at a time. And that made a lot of sense. 

Recently, I came across an interesting note in a book I was reading which made me think of Oli: 

“Don’t forget, you get out of life what you put into it - or what you jam into it. “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough” (William Blake). So keep on jamming, if for no other reason than to thicken up your one and only life, adding texture and bulk to the daily/yearly calendar, and possibly even coming up with something new. Yes, if you crave something new, something original, particularly when they keep saying ‘Less is more’ remember that I say: Too much is really just fine. Only by going too far can we break the boring old and stumble into something a little different. Originality is a key goal for the old human nervous system. In short, something new from something old - (old and in a rut). 

The biggest and best homework assignment in life and art, and i’ll give it to you right now, is to keep yourself excited, going forward, happy, happy, enthusiastic.”

From Zara’s Tales, Peter Beard. 

PS - photos aren't really related but just to give you an idea of how beautiful the sky is around here