It occurred to me six weeks ago that the 20th anniversary of the start of my 49-week bicycle trip from Portugal to India through 24 countries, March 1991 to Feb 1992, began 20 years ago tomorrow. It also occurs to me that very few of my current friends knew me before I became disabled with muscular dystrophy, when I was much more of a jock than most of my friends, though a rather scrawny one at that.
Since my return to Canada on Valentine's Day 1992, I have never opened and read my diary I wrote during the trip, but the memories of the events of that trip still fill my mind. So many things happened that challenged my world view and threatened my life that it boggles my mind when I think of it. If I tried to compile a list of the 10 most incredible things that have happened to me in my life, at am sure seven or eight of them happened on this trip. Fortunately I knew nothing of what would unfold or I am sure I would not have gone. Even my muscular dystrophy, which now defines how most people see me, really got going as a result of this trip, although I believe it would have happened eventually anyway. My journal entries trigger more memories and show me how much I have changed, both for the better and worse, in the past 20 years.
For the past 6 weeks I have pored over my journals and notebooks and scanned in the pictures I took along the way. It has been a very exciting exercise. I have already written the first 55 days that will be posted over the next eight weeks, and will continue to write ahead of time as I go. I have never shared so much of myself publicly before, always believing that what happened to me would be if no relevance to others. Perhaps that is still so, but I am doing this more for me than anyone else, to honour what I once was and what I accomplished.
I hope to follow along through its many twists and turns. I hope you enjoy it. Please post comments if you feel so inclined. See you tomorrow.....
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2 comments:
Fantastic start to an incredible journey! Many blessings - and how exciting! Peace... danzante
Truthfully, Ken is still pretty much to me as I've always known him, forthright, honest, introspective, funny, sarcastic, a little edgey (ok, a bit more than little), an overall good egg.
I think that not seeing him for years at a time the MD is always there but never in your face. When I saw him almost two years ago, it was not a shock, the biggest surprise was how skinny he was.
You still hunky!!! hehehe
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