I was up
and riding fairly early. I was on the highway driving along in the warm morning
sunshine and I noticed that things were a bit different today… There were lots
and lots of people all over the place… It took me a few Km to decide that this
was not just because I was in a densely populated area, it was instead simply
because it was a Sunday.
Yes,
people were going to church. They were all dressed up in their “Sunday Finest”…
many of the adult men in suits, the women all in brightly coloured dresses and some
with nice hats, and all the kids were dressed up too. There were grandmothers
hobbling along and women in twos and threes with their babies slung on their
backs and the smaller children following along while playing games near-by.
The
churches were mostly not as we would think of them in the developed world (
though there were a few of those too), no these were just another small straw
hut indistinguishable from the other dwellings but that they were slightly
larger… Tho some of them were not buildings at all, just a gathering of people
around one of those village trees that I mentioned.
But, as I
was riding along that morning, there was something else that was different
too.. Everybody was happy and smiling and waving to me and each-other… I always
try to acknowledge anybody who waves to me as I ride by and after an hour and a
half of driving through this constant low-grade procession of people my arm was
pretty much ready to drop off from all the waving. Even though Im scooting
along the highway at about 80Kmh its easy to see the expressions on peoples
faces and to “read their eyes” so to
speak, and it didn’t take more than a few minutes for me to contract the
genuine happiness that the people were feeling.
And it
made me feel better about the fact that life isn’t fair and that I cant justify
the privilege that I have of having the money and time to ride through the
world on my motorbike at my leisure and that 99% of these people that Im riding
past will never have that opportunity and that most of them will likely never
travel more than a few hundred kilometers from where thay were born (if that)…
It didn’t make the unfairness go away or resolve my internal conflicts and
questions, but for that morning at least, it certainly felt better…
I think
Johnny Cash had a different aspect in mind when he wrote his song, But I agree …
there’s nothing like the feeling of Sunday morning coming down J
