Strange Zen

0Matt • 26th Apr 2009 • Africa, Life Lessons, Recommendations

I have found a strangely repulsive yet strangely attractive set of sensations from intensely uncomfortable car/truck rides.

It’s not a masochistic thing at all (or maybe it is)… but I enjoy the feeling of being silent and introverted while cramped in a vehicle for long hours or while laying in the back of a flatbed truck at night, cold as can be with splinters assaulting my back side.

I think part of what I like about it is that I don’t know when we’re going to arrive. Especially at night in the back of a truck, there is no way to tell if we’re about to pull into our driveway or if there’s still three hours left. Allowing myself to get lost in thought during the drive, giving the Unknown the driver’s seat and letting go of my need to be in control is all made easier by the crampedness, the bitter cold, and the splinters.

It’s a small measure of suffering that causes me to be uncomfortable… a decisive change from the way I live my life 99% time and a time to feel what the rest of the world feels on a daily basis. I don’t think that it’s a necessary thing for privileged people to make themselves poor, but I do think it’s important for us to stand in solidarity with those who suffer, and sometimes that means suffering a little bit ourselves.

So next time you have the option to take the front seat and be comfortable, offer it to someone else and endure the mild suffering of being cramped, cold, or splintered… Many people live cramped, cold, and splintered every day of their lives.