One strange, rather personal thing was how emotional I got when people showed me kindness.
More often than not they were folk who hardly had 2 beans to rub together.
There were quite a few times I shed tears.
I had to give myself a good talking too!
All familiar to me as well, Matt, and for the same reasons. People treated me so kindly on my double crossing of Europe last summer, and I was deeply touched and will never forget. Those who had the least to give, gave the most and most freely. I bonded quickly and parting was...well, tears were shed on both sides but a bit more from me.
Man up!!
Well...I think it is the person secure in themselves who can appreciate a situation and react appropriately; sometimes, tears are appropriate. Nothing more manly than that.
Ah well, memories.
The most precious part of any trip, and the ones you can hold and keep close to your heart for a lifetime.
I thought long and hard on such things as I rode along. So much of what we worry about and use to occupy our time counts for nothing in the scheme of things. It is the basics so often neglected int he hustle and bustle of daily life -- Kindness, Love, Hope, and Time spent, with a generous dollop of Compassion -- that really count.
= = = = = = =
Going through Serbia, I stopped at a little market and bought a small bag of hard-shelled peppermints with chocolate filling. For no particular reason, I have them away. An old man on a bicycle pedaling with a couple big propane tanks on the back rack got a couple, shedding tears down his cheeks and thanked me with a quavering smile. I stopped at a cemetery where the old groundskeeper was sitting briefly in the shade, knackered from his efforts. I zoomed in, put out my hand with the candy and he immediately grasped it in a handshake of friendship, as was so common there. When he opened his hand, there was the candy and he sat looking at it for a long time, the tears quietly dripping down his cheeks. When I left, he gave me a hug. A couple motorcycle gang members with "HUNGARY" tattooed on their foreheads got more, as they got off their motorcycles at an ice cream parlor. They passed me on the road sometime later, and waved me out of sight.
= = = = = = =
Little, unexpected acts of kindness really count, and they're not so little to those who receive them. I know, as recipient of many.
Good stuff. Really good stuff, Matt.
All the best,
Dan.
