If I'm anything it's stubborn and persistent. And the minute you tell me I can't do something, that is the very second I want to do it.
Laid up here when I can barely walk from one end of my apartment to the other, all I can think about are all the places I want to go and all the things I want to do--upright on two legs. I told Sue last night, when I'm all healed I'm going to climb Mt. Rainier. I don't know why I'm fixated on that particular mountain, but I do know I want to keep living for all it's worth.
And the fact that I can barely walk ten feet without pain makes my buddy, Mark Vashro's bike ride seem so amazing. Mark's not the first person to ride across the country. Sometimes it seems when you surf the Web that there are so many people crisscrossing the country on bicycle that they'd be dodging each other out there in the heartland. I blogged about Mark here on Action Bob and over at gather.com.
Then yesterday I noticed that Mark posted a link to a photographer's site who had taken some shots of him. When you read Mary Costa's intro to her photographs, you get a good sense of what Mark is like. I met him while acting in a play, and probably had a better time sitting in the dressing room talking to him than I actually had being on stage in that particular production.
Check out the photographs here and here's a link to Mark's site and the projects he's working on. He really an inspiration.
Showing posts with label Mark Vashro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Vashro. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Bike Against the Wind: A buddy's journey across the United States
This past Sunday, April 4, twenty-ten, Easter Sunday, Mark Vashro dunked the wheels of his bike in the Atlantic Ocean (well, it was really Boston Harbor right at Columbus Park in Boston) and set off to ride 4,000 miles across the United States. He's calling his journey, Bike Against the Wind and you can read all about it here. I met Mark last fall at the Apollinaire Theatre in Chelsea while performing in The Wonderful World of Dissocia. It wasn't the greatest theatrical experience of my career, but meeting Mark was definitely one of the high points. He is a smart, intelligent, friendly, inquisitive person who is also a really nice guy to boot. Must be his Idaho upbringing. He and I would sit in the dressing room and talk about the world, and he and I kind of saw things in the same light, that what's currently happening in the the United States and the world at large is probably a long time coming, and in a certain regards it might even be for the better. Without getting into the philosophical details, I'll just leave it at that. Right now you either know what I'm saying or we're going to get into a big argument.
But eventually he told me about this trip--bicycling across the United States. I've known plenty of people who have wanted to do this. I know a few people who have through-hiked the Appalachian Trail. I know a few people who have gone on extended bike trips. Long-distance bike travel is not news to me.
But what was news to me was his reason.
He said he wanted to see for himself what was going on out there in the country. He wanted to talk to people and see why and how they ended up where they were. And if I remember correctly, he wanted to see how he fitted in to all this.
And he wants your story too. He's looking for content (I think it's just videos, though) about how you ended up where you live.
He's a filmmaker, so his bike helmet is fitted with this cool little rack for this cool little HD camera he has. And of course, it's the 21st century so he's updating his site, and you can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
As a social writer for Gather.com, I spend an inordinate amount of time surfing the Web looking for stories and keeping up on the news and current events. I really enjoy it, but it can get kind of depressing at times. Human beings do the weirdest, most illogical things at times. And as we all know, many times they are simply mean and destructive.
The thing is, there are a lot of really good things happening in this world. Uplifting, positive things that can restore our faith in human nature and hopefully ensure this world will hang on for a few more generations. I think Bike Against the Wind is one of those things.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Biking against the wind: Hope for this country
It's Sunday morning, traditionally a time I would plop down on the couch with a cup of coffee, put on some high-brow concert music (in lieu of church) and read the papers. At least three of 'em.
The news of late--and by "of late" I mean in the past five or six years has been pretty bad. Depressing. Abysmal. Enough to make one desire to run far, far away. Leave the country. My fight or flight reaction is really kicking in and my gut feeling is leave the country to the bohunks who seem to be gathering steam in this country (remember the vitriol from Hillary Clinton's campaign? or the rabid dogs one hears on talk radio and in the conservative press?) Just turn your back on the whole thing.
Can you feel the anger and bile rising in my voice?
Because our country seems to be lacking in some real intelligent discourse. I'm not knocking the current conservative movement. I think it's great that finally, the middle class is rising up and finally taking a real, active part in the political process. What I have a problem with is how they're being led along like sheep. And their anger, their fury seems to come from their desire to preserve the old way, as much as anything. When they rail about the tax and spend Democrats, it seems to me, it comes more from their desire to keep their tax dollars for themselves so they can continue to have their big homes and big cars and big TVs and their swimming pools. It's not from a real altruistic feeling of wanting to make the world a better place. The world is changing, the world has changed, and it seems that the conservative movement in this country is fueled by fear and the desire to go back in time, not forward.
And there are a lot of people in this world right now who cause me to just grind my teeth, because I don't see them as really thinking for themselves. When they talk their politics they just repeat verbatim what they hear Jay Severin mouth on his radio show. I know this because I've listened to him--not so much anymore because I rarely spend time driving anymore, but when I did I would listen to his show. I like to hear all points of view. And, as I said, I would hear people simply parroting exactly what he would say. And people would just repeat his words and somehow they think those words are theirs and they think they're smart, when they're simply walking, talking tape recorders on playback.
But...
There's an actor/filmmaker friend of mine who I met this past fall while performing in a play, and we'd talk. His name is Mark Vashro and he's young and smart and curious-exactly what all people should be. These qualities make it almost impossible for a human being to be angry. And he's been questioning his place in the world and everything that's been going on. So he's decided to ride a bike across the United States. To find out for himself what is going on. Not be spoonfed the answers but question and learn for himself. Yeah, it's a real hippie thing to do. But to me, it's a real American thing to do. Being independent and moving and discovering and being an individual and thinking for yourself. Those are ideals, but when I think of the United States, that's how I think of it. Not angry. Not vindictive. But smart and curious and bold.
People like Mark restore my faith and hope for this country. Because this country was founded for the rights of the individual. And individuals, right now, are few and far between.
The news of late--and by "of late" I mean in the past five or six years has been pretty bad. Depressing. Abysmal. Enough to make one desire to run far, far away. Leave the country. My fight or flight reaction is really kicking in and my gut feeling is leave the country to the bohunks who seem to be gathering steam in this country (remember the vitriol from Hillary Clinton's campaign? or the rabid dogs one hears on talk radio and in the conservative press?) Just turn your back on the whole thing.
Can you feel the anger and bile rising in my voice?
Because our country seems to be lacking in some real intelligent discourse. I'm not knocking the current conservative movement. I think it's great that finally, the middle class is rising up and finally taking a real, active part in the political process. What I have a problem with is how they're being led along like sheep. And their anger, their fury seems to come from their desire to preserve the old way, as much as anything. When they rail about the tax and spend Democrats, it seems to me, it comes more from their desire to keep their tax dollars for themselves so they can continue to have their big homes and big cars and big TVs and their swimming pools. It's not from a real altruistic feeling of wanting to make the world a better place. The world is changing, the world has changed, and it seems that the conservative movement in this country is fueled by fear and the desire to go back in time, not forward.
And there are a lot of people in this world right now who cause me to just grind my teeth, because I don't see them as really thinking for themselves. When they talk their politics they just repeat verbatim what they hear Jay Severin mouth on his radio show. I know this because I've listened to him--not so much anymore because I rarely spend time driving anymore, but when I did I would listen to his show. I like to hear all points of view. And, as I said, I would hear people simply parroting exactly what he would say. And people would just repeat his words and somehow they think those words are theirs and they think they're smart, when they're simply walking, talking tape recorders on playback.
But...
There's an actor/filmmaker friend of mine who I met this past fall while performing in a play, and we'd talk. His name is Mark Vashro and he's young and smart and curious-exactly what all people should be. These qualities make it almost impossible for a human being to be angry. And he's been questioning his place in the world and everything that's been going on. So he's decided to ride a bike across the United States. To find out for himself what is going on. Not be spoonfed the answers but question and learn for himself. Yeah, it's a real hippie thing to do. But to me, it's a real American thing to do. Being independent and moving and discovering and being an individual and thinking for yourself. Those are ideals, but when I think of the United States, that's how I think of it. Not angry. Not vindictive. But smart and curious and bold.
People like Mark restore my faith and hope for this country. Because this country was founded for the rights of the individual. And individuals, right now, are few and far between.
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