The Motorcycle Diaries

“At night, after the exhausting games of canasta, we would look over the immense sea, full of white-flecked and green reflections, the two of us leaning side by side on the railing, each of us far away, flying in his own aircraft to the stratospheric regions of his own dreams. There we understood that our vocation, our true vocation, was to move for eternity along the roads and seas of the world. Always curious, looking into everything that came before our eyes, sniffing out each corner but only ever faintly–not setting down roots in any land or staying long enough to see the substratum of things; the outer limits would suffice.”~Ernesto (Che) Guevera



I sat at work today eating pasta out of a can and sipping bad coffee reading The Motorcyle Diaries and thinking about my true vocation. Something about that moment was strangely titillating, to read somewhat subversive phrases during the work day with the VP sitting across from me waiting for his TV dinner to heat in the microwave. Then it was back to the cold efficiency of the factory lab in which I must have everything timed down to the last second to make the best use of my time in order to make a deadline.

I find myself doing all I can to occupy my senses to the fullest, and while doing my job quite well, escaping its numbing effects. I have my iPod filled with hundreds of songs and do a subtle dance around the workplace in an effort not to be nullified and deadened. There is nothing stimulating about the way I spend a good chunk of my life. What I do is not a craft and, in fact, is becoming more and more automated by the day. But now, at least, I have my dreams to lift me above the routine, into the stratosphere. Written 4/6/06