How Will We Live Tomorrow?

Trip Log – Day 344 – Clovis NM to Levelland TX

Posted on October 17, 2016 by paulefallon

October 14, 2016 – Clouds and Sun, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 89

Miles to Date: 17,961

States to Date: 45

After college I served as a VISTA Volunteer in the South Plains of Texas, an area most people would call West Texas, but locals insist is different. The South Plains are broad and flat: I did not cross a single river today. The area was mostly uninhabited until the 1920’s, when we figured out how to tap the Ogallala Aquifer and grow cotton, soybeans, watermelon, and sunflowers. By the 1970’s early settlers had become the areas first generation of senior citizens; I worked at South Plains Community Action Association to establish senior programs: meals on wheels, medical transport, and home repair. I traveled about 2,000 miles a month across thirteen rural counties to help elderly folks get new roofs, insulation, and indoor plumbing. It was gratifying work.

Today I cycled through a swath of that territory, from Muleshoe through Littlefield to Levelland, under a grey dome that didn’t turn sunny until mid afternoon. I look for buffet lunches on long travel days; the Dinner Bell’s Friday catfish buffet hit the spot. Fried okra, fried fish, fried popcorn shrimp… do you spot a trend? Seems I was the only patron who ate the sautéed fish. Then again, I was the only one lacking a big belly and a bigger hat.

One thing I did not eat was the pink gelatin. My year of senior citizen lunches forever ruined my appetite for any dish with marshmallows or suspended in Jell-O.

The irony of riding down Littlefield’s near abandoned downtown is that the largest occupied building is the senior center, as it is in so many small towns. In less than forty years a group that was an emerging demographic has become the dominant one.

So far, The South Plains has weathered rural decline better than most areas of the Great Plains, Muleshoe, Littlefield and Levelland all have just about the same number of residents today as they did when I lived here. Commerce has simply shifted from downtown to the highway. In another forty years, who knows how many will remain.

Profile Response: Lily Hansen, Nashville, TN

Posted on October 17, 2016 by paulefallon

When Lily Hansen moved to Nashville from Chicago, she only knew a few people. She reached out to them and interviewed them about her new city. The last question she asked each of them was, “Whom should I talk to next?” Four years later she is author of a hot selling local book, Word of Mouth: Nashville Conversations, that includes profiles of 65 people from Music City. She also hosts a monthly interview podcast of a wide range of Nashville citizens. Her book is available at 18 local venues, soon including the Nashville airport, and inspired an art show at Vanderbilt. “I am floored by what happened from one passion project. People are so generous.” Lily may have been fortunate in timing her project with Nashville’s surging growth, but this journalist and marketing whiz also worked very hard to make her project relevant and exciting.

Lily recently moved into a studio at Ryman Artist Lofts just outside of downtown. She applied, got on the waiting list, and kept calling until, when a place opened up, she was ready to jump on it and move within a week. “I am a manifestor. I believe what you think can become a reality.”

Lily has been involved in Arts / Music / Entertainment journalism since college. The 29-year-old freelancer recognizes that success is a combination of tenacity, quality writing, and good luck. “I arrived in Nashville and got a cover story interview with Carrie Underwood within a month.” When she began working on her book freelancing kept pulling her away from her primary interest. “My mother knows me best. She said, stop doing other things and follow your heart.” These days, Lily is writing, promoting, and interviewing, but they do not tear her in different directions. “I can do multiple things when they are in the same vein. Right now, all my efforts related to Word of Mouth feed on each other.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“The whole thing I’m trying to do is to be transparent. I was raised by a mom who told me life is up and down, and it’s all good. I want to spread a 180-degree view of the world. Everything is put through this filter to look good. I want us to be more about real life.

“Tomorrow, I want to be authentic.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged Lily Hansen, Nashville TN, Ryman Artist Lofts, Word of Mouth: Nashville Conversations | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 343 – Fort Sumner NM to Clovis NM

Posted on October 16, 2016 by paulefallon

October 13, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 66

Miles to Date: 17,872

States to Date: 45

The Internet lists two motels in Fort Sumner, both on the east side of town. Coming in from the west, I passed on the Coronado Motel despite the hand painted sign quoting single rooms at $35 a night. The place looked dusty even by my marginal standards. But the Billy the Kid Motel was full with cowboys renting by the week and Super 8 wanted $80 a night. So I pedaled back to the Coronado, which proved one of the more memorable stays of my trip. Tito gives a $10 discount to cyclists. For twenty-five bucks I got a sweet room with a powerful shower, king bed, and in-room coffee. The place even has an ice machine. Another cyclist occupied the room next to mine, though he left at dusk to distance ride at night. All the other parking spots were filled with work trucks. I doubt a woman has stayed here in ten years, at least not one who’s registered.

I woke before daylight after nine hours sleep, heard my neighbors back out to their labors, picked up some grocery store grub in this cafe-deprived town, and pedaled out on the plains.

The plains are my favorite place to ride. Austerely beautiful; easy when the wind’s at your back; tough when it’s in your face; miles upon miles of raw land and wide sky with a taut horizon; the most elementary landscape. I ride mountains to their breathless peaks, but when I roll over the plains I am simultaneously grounded and on top of the world.

There’s a derivative of root cause analysis known as the five whys: take any situation and ask ‘why’ five times deep to understand its true essence. Cycling the plains is a mediation that evokes my own five ways. The regular pedal strokes, the unwavering land, prod my psyche. Today, I spun all the way back to the moment from my childhood when I grasped my fundamental nature.

I was seven. My parents were in bed. My mother held my little brother in her arms, we four older children stood around the foot: morning-after family meeting. I don’t remember what precipitated this one. Maybe my father hit my mother the night before, or punched the wall, or knelt on the front lawn howling at the moon. My father was a sweet drunk, until he wasn’t. Morning was mea culpa time; reassurance that it would never happen again. My father glossed over the facts by enumerating all the fun things he had planned, my mother nodded in support. Our job was to replace reality with his intention.

I stood there, listening, watching, and suddenly realized that these two people were way over their heads. Two beautiful creatures whose attraction led to a slew of kids and frustrations vented through bourbon. I felt no anger, no fear, but neither did I swallow their platitudes. They were neither bad nor good: just two people juggling more than they could handle. I was their child, but I didn’t feel dependent.

There’s something chilling about a seven-year-old who so objectively analyzes his personal situation. I knew I was supposed to be upset, to buy the emotional plea for redemption. But observing my father from the bedpost brought me to the age of reason the nun’s assumed I would reach at the first communion rail. I refused to suffer rage, then cathartic release, just to get hurt again by the next inevitable episode. I understood, in that moment, my role in life. I observe and I listen. I engage with my hands and my head, but keep a distant heart. I travel alone and never feel lonely.

Maybe that’s why I love the plains. No drama, no intention, no great heights or looming shadows. The plains are not the result of explosion. They are simply layers upon layers of sediment rolled out under the baking sun. They seem boring, until you look close at how the light strikes each quivering blade, and listen carefully to the slithering snakes and blackbirds rustling in the sage.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged bicycling the plains, Coronado Motel Fort Sumner NM, Fort Sumner NM, meditation on bicycling the plains | 3 Comments

Responses: How will we live tomorrow?

Posted on October 16, 2016 by paulefallon

How will we live tomorrow?

“As time goes on, gay and lesbian issues will disappear. I think of gay prejudice like nuclear waste, it has a half-life. The prejudice gets less, but never quite goes away.”

Richard, bisexual, Kansas City, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“How we will live tomorrow is my job, sort of. I’m an archaeologist and have been looking at the rise and fall of large-scale, complex societies for a while (https://www.routledge.com/Why-Did-Ancient-Civilizations-Fail/Johnson/p/book/9781629582832(link is external)). My main point, I suppose, is that fossil fuels are a finite resource. We haven’t planned for what the world will be once we stop using fossil fuels. I am directing my research at what I call “low tech” solutions, that is, solutions that can help solve basic sustainability problems in a post-fossil-fuel world. By sustainability, I mean “able to support human and other organisms with a long-term view.” I think we need to create a stable-state economy and cultural ethos. In short, we need to depend on renewable resources in the amount that they are renewed. It means adapting to the changing world (unlike what we’re doing today, which is pretending the world isn’t changing or finite and attempting to maintain the “progress” status quo).

“Tomorrow” is such a nebulous term. For those living paycheck-to-paycheck it has a different meaning than for me, but regardless of how everybody lives today, it is a fact that we’re going to have big changes coming as fossil fuels run out and I don’t hear anybody talking about what comes next.”

Scott Johnson, cyclist, St. Louis, MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Can I get back to you on that?”

Craig Lubow, attorney, Kansas City, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“One second at a time.”

Christie, cashier trainee, Wamego, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“Happy.”

Tamera, shapely brunette, Wamego, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“I will look forward to the Presidential election being over. I wish I could say things will be better for my kids and grandkids, but I don’t know. We are farmers, five generations of farmers, but the prices we get are so low.”

Cindy, Grassroots Art Center Lucas, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“I don’t dwell on it. I don’t even think about it. I just think about food, sleep, and video games.”

Emily Earhart, teenager, Bennington KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?”

Helen, fellow distributor of yellow cards albeit different message, Plainville, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“One day at a time.”

Marty Nitzberg, Monument, CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I don’t know how we’ll live tomorrow. I’m an archeologist. I live in the past.”

Don Rowlinson, curator, Studley, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“Mine will be the same old thing; tomorrow and Sunday and Monday. I get Tuesday off.”

Tracey, cashier JD’s Restaurant, Hoxie, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“We don’t know if we will be here tomorrow. We are between the earth and the hands of God.”

Lekbria, Moroccan immigrant, Denver CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“You’re living free, so you have it made.”

Mike, native Vermonter, Goodland, KS

How will we live tomorrow?

“We better take care of the earth.”

Barbara, KATY trail cyclist, Hingman Junction MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“You can start with ‘do no harm’: ecologically, socially. If you can get there you can move to having an obligation to others. But don’t assume they have an obligation to you.”

Wes, Casino buffet diner, Boonville MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Eventually we will lose everything. We are destroying our earth.”

Pam, convenience store customer, Polo MO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Work. If I’m here I can’t be doing anything wrong.”

Austin, McDonald’s employee, Colorado Springs, CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Happy. Life always throws you disappointment. You just let it go.”

Dominic, 26-year-old unmarried father of five by three mothers, Pueblo CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“Who knows?”

James Fallon, inmate, Pueblo CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“We will live pretty much like today’ just another day. Another way to look at it is to live life to the fullest and don’t regret a single thing you’ve done.”

Casey, 11^th grader, Walsenburg, CO

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’ve been asking myself that. That’s why I made this change from living in a Hindu Ashram community in Taos to living here. I got a lot of the Ashram but I was never fully part of it. Already I feel a part of this community.”

Goldilocks, new employee and resident, Snowmansion, Arroyo Seco NM

Posted in Responses | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 342 – Vaughn NM to Fort Sumner NM

Posted on October 15, 2016 by paulefallon

October 12, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 60

Miles to Date: 17,806

States to Date: 45

My agenda to visit all of my siblings and their children on this journey is not merely social. We are a demographically diverse bunch. Pat and Jack Fallon were third generation Irish-American Catholics from the New York area. None of their five children or fourteen grandchildren is Catholic or lives in metropolitan New York. We are scattered over eight states; we all practice a different religion, if any at all. Some of us have advanced degrees; others have not graduated high school. Some own homes; others rent. One has six children; others are committed to having none. Some are veterans, others felons; one is both. We are married or divorced or living together. We are straight and gay. We have natural children and stepchildren and adopted children. We occupy every economic quartile, though none of us is in the top 1%. Our politics run blood red and sky blue. We are the most diverse family I know that still all talk with each other. Because, whatever our differences or opinions, we are family.

The most difficult person to meet up with on my journey has been my oldest brother Bill, a long haul truck driver based in Salt Lake City who’s home at most 36 hours a week. Over the past year we near missed in Indiana, Wyoming and Texas. Today we navigated an Apollo worthy linkup. I cycled to Vaughn, New Mexico and took a room at the faded motel next to a 24-hour diner on US 285 that Bill passes four times a week shuttling between Salt Lake City and Laredo, Texas. He gave me a 3:00 a.m. ETA but called at midnight: making good time, only fifteen minutes away. We spent three hours at Penny’s Diner, the only patrons in the only bright lights for a hundred miles around.

Bill is the most upbeat person I’ve ever met. No matter what travails befall him, and there have been plenty, he always says things are great. He’s also keen about whatever endeavor he’s invested in, whether it’s product sales, international construction, SBA disaster financing, or, these days, trucking. Since I’m fascinated by logistics, I enjoy hearing the intricacies of schedule and the advantages of designated routes, though the sheer volume of trucking and the fossil energy we burn on our highways overwhelms me. Bill’s company runs twelve round trips per week between SLC and Laredo alone simply to deliver parts between Autoliv’s plants in Utah and Mexico. Between shoptalk we catch up on the comings and goings of our children, which are less predictable than Bill’s junkets up and down US 285.

When I ask Bill ‘How will we live tomorrow?” he declines to respond. Many people do that; I only ask once. I put down my pen and look out at the deep night sky, so familiar to a man who trucks all hours, so foreign to a guy who cycles all day and hunkers down in the dark. I wonder how two people so genetically linked can be so different. Which makes me ponder the challenge of forging better bonds among the rest of us.

We start by seeking out and creating bright spots where our complicated paths intersect, the Mormon trucker and the Yankee cyclist in the middle of the night in the middle of New Mexico. Not too much in common. Except that we’re human. And family.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Penny's Diner Vaughn NM, Vaughn NM | 5 Comments

Trip Log – Day 341 – Moriarty NM to Vaughn NM

Posted on October 14, 2016 by paulefallon

October 11, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 69

Miles to Date: 17,746

States to Date: 45

O give me a home where the buffalo roam

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

Today was a day for singing! Back in the wide-open spaces to begin my fourth swath across the Great Plains – this time traveling east from the Sandia foothills across the New Mexico sage and the Ogallala Aquifer nourished South Plains of Texas to Fort Worth.

I spent the whole day on broad shoulders of I-40 and US 285. Road sign mania! None in the cars or trucks zooming past could hear me vocalize. They don’t know what they missed.

The temperature was perfect, the sun was bright and the wind nudged me forth from behind.

I actually did see antelopes play.

I feasted at The Encino Firehouse Mercantile and Deli, the only business in the town of fifty souls. Victor Gallupe, City Councilman, Fire Chief and cafe proprietor, explained that the town used to be four or five times larger. But he has hopes for the future: the largest wind farm in New Mexico is being built fifteen miles due west on US 60.

Over 100 trains a day pass through Encino, along a main east/west corridor that parallels US 60.

Live horses make Vaughn’s welcome sign authentically Western.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Encino Mercantile and Deli, Encino NM, Vaughn NM | Leave a comment

Profile Response: Susan Ruth, Nashville TN

Posted on October 14, 2016 by paulefallon

On Monday morning five degrees of separation existed between Susan Ruth and me. Then a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend told Susan about my journey. She called my number, I picked up along the road, and by Monday evening we were sitting in her kitchen discussing humanism and tomorrow. Susan recorded part of our conversation for her podcast, ‘Hey Human,’ (http://www.Heyhumanpodcast.com) I asked her, “How will we live tomorrow?’ We are the 21^st century equivalent of people making a life by taking in each other’s laundry. There is no money to be made in reaching out to others and tossing our impressions on the Internet, but Susan and I both believe there is value in the interaction and ripple in the ideas we discuss.

Susan’s an artist and cartoonist (http://www.Vividgallery.org), a podcaster, a self-taught guitar and pianist, vocalist and songwriter with four CD’s to her credit (http://www.Susanruth.com). Reba McEntire covered Ruth’s song, ‘Promise Me Love,’ on her most recent album: an awesome songwriting credit, but not a livelihood. Ruth still has a day job as the office manager for a local architectural firm. She is good at it, but it’s not her passion. “I have friends who have given up their artistic pursuits for more security. I don’t now how to do that. There are diddies and doodles in my head all day long. How can I do anything but what I love to do?”

Susan moved to Nashville four years ago. “It was either here or LA or New York.” Nashville has the advantage of lower cost living. Susan bought a small house last year and fixed it up sweet.

Susan’s first round of podcasts are conversations with a female friend. She started ‘Hey Human’ to draw from a wider audience. “I want to talk to everyone; convicts, hate groups, not just people who agree with me.” In terms of interviewing me, Susan failed in that regard; the two of us turned out to be very simpatico.

Growing up, Susan was fascinated by religion. She attended various churches and eventually studied religion and literature at Western Washington University. ““I’m not religious. I believe in God but He’s not what everyone believes in and I respect that and the individual journey to God or Enlightenment or Science.” She describes herself as a humanist, though her outlook is realistic rather than rosy. “Humans are not content to be. We’re terrified of our feelings, our depression. I don’t have a TV. If I did I would watch it. Why do that? The commercials program us to feel bad about ourselves. I don’t look at the news anymore. I can’t. We’re inundated by the bad stuff.”

Susan views the current presidential election as a wake-up to our nation. “Trump is the bird-dog running through the forest of America. The crazy birds are flocking to him.”

Susan quotes a friend with saying, “We’re fat cats, starving.” She illustrates it with the story of a man she observed at a coffee shop. He ordered coffee and a muffin. He sat down, looked at the muffin, and his face revealed conflict about eating it. “I watched his guilt and shame as he ate. He was eating pain. That is why we’re obese. Pain is heavy.”

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’ve been thinking about it all day. We will likely hold our breath for a while. We are trying not to drown. We will likely venture off this rock and find another rock. If we can understand each other – understanding and compassion are the keys – we will find a way to continue.

“I am an alien, not in the science fiction way, but in the sense of being ‘other’. I’m part of something bigger than me, than my community, than this earth.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged Hey Human, Nashville TN, Promise Me Love, Susan Ruth | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 340 – Albuquerque NM to Moriarty NM

Posted on October 13, 2016 by paulefallon

October 10, 2016 – Sun, 75 degrees

Miles Today: 53

Miles to Date: 17,677

States to Date: 45

Albuquerque is low-slung as Fresno, visually chaotic as Houston, friendly as Minneapolis, street-peopled as Portland, and outdoorsy as Denver. Albuquerque’s much smaller than I thought: its sister city Phoenix is more than four times its size.

I pedaled the length of Fourth Street, which is about as diverse a strip as any in our nation. I visited Old Town and the Jetty Jacks along the Rio Grande flood plain, downtown and the university. I was enthralled by the National Museum of Everything Nuclear, a more apt name than its official title. Mostly I liked Albuquerque because everyone I met, from coffee guru to college professor, to nature walker, to obese bicycle man, to green chili curry waitress, to ED doc in spandex, was open and engaging.

What I couldn’t compose in my brief stay was a coherent image of the place. Instead I found myself drawn to Albuquerque’s details. To the light on the coarse adobe walls, the contrast of brilliant orange against so much brown, to folk murals and stainless steel shimmering in the blinding sun.

Perhaps Albuquerque is the quintessential American city – disparate parts loosely tied together into an entity that resists cohesion.

Posted in Bicycle Trip Log | Tagged Albuquerque NM, Jetty Jacks, Mimmo Espresso, National Museum of Nuclear | 1 Comment

Profile Response: John Anderson, Bell Buckle TN

Posted on October 13, 2016 by paulefallon

Every so often I knock on my host’s door, he calls out, “come in,” and the moment I enter his face reveals complete surprise. He’s forgotten about me. No one has ever recovered from that lapse as quickly as John Anderson, who seemed just as pleased to see me as if he’d been preparing all day.

Hospitality wears many faces. John was apologetic about his house, “The bathroom looks like a Mexican mechanic shop.” I’ve seen worse. He asked if I’d eaten with a tone that conveyed there was no food, but described the differences among three kinds of beer in the fridge with flourish. He told me to help myself, but I never had to. Every time John opened a beer, he handed another to me as well. His walls are full of posters, pictures, and quotes, as well as many notes. “I am a high functioning alcoholic, but I forget things at night so I put notes on them.” People often ask if I’d like to use the washing machine. John showed me a pile of fresh clean clothes and said, “Wear what you like while you’re here.” I stuck with the stuff in my panniers.

We hopped into his Varis and took the three-block drive to the end of Maple Street, stopping to chat with neighbors along the way. We visited his friend Martha and her ex-husband, two of their three children and a pair of grandkids, all of whom were all camped out in the house of the one child travelling. There comes a time when you stop trying to make sense of Bell Buckle and just enjoy it.

John was born in the house across the street from where he lives now. He was a teacher, ultra-marathoner and long distance cyclist. In 2014 he ran for Congress and came in third in Tennessee’s Fourth Congressional District Republican Primary. He considers his run a success, as he believes his candidacy kept Jim Tracy, by a margin of 38 votes, from winning that primary. John’s Tea Party politics are strongly held, if difficult for me to weave together. This year, he rode his bicycle from Seattle to Jacksonville to publicize rebellionride.com, his manifesto on how the citizens of the United States will peaceably overthrow the government.

Though many would say John looks like an aging hippie, he describes himself as a Viking. Which makes sense. Vikings were early, independent explorers, who flourished with whatever came their way. That’s how John accepted me when I showed up at his door, invited yet unexpected.

How will we live tomorrow?

“Hillary Clinton will be elected. Her presidency will be a time of such disaster. This doesn’t have anything to do with Hillary Clinton.

“We, the American people, are going to overthrow the government and we are not going to do it with bullets. If anyone wants to see how, go to www.rebellionride.com. If anyone has better ideas, I’m open to them, but I have yet to hear any.”

Posted in Responses | Tagged Bell Buckle TN, John Anderson, Rebellion Ride | Leave a comment

Trip Log – Day 339 – Santa Fe NM to Albuquerque NM

Posted on October 12, 2016 by paulefallon

October 9, 2016 – Sun, 70 degrees

Miles Today: 58

Miles to Date: 17,624

States to Date: 45

My tires stayed gripped to the earth, but my attention all day was in the clouds. From first light through midday to evening storms, the New Mexico sky was amazing today.