My Cup of Tea

“There’s an old analogy to a cup of tea. If you want to drink new tea you have to get rid of the old tea that’s in your cup, otherwise your cup just overflows and you get a wet mess. Your head is like that cup. It has a limited capacity and if you want to learn something about the world you should keep your head empty in order to learn it. It’s very easy to spend your whole life swishing old tea around in your cup thinking it’s great stuff because you’ve never really tried anything new…”

- From Lila by Robert M. Pirsig

I stopped for a cup of coffee this morning and something to eat after an hour or so of riding. I decided to get in a little bit of Pirsig in before going to my next stop. He’s so good for making me slow down, reflect, and evaluate. Take in the moment.

I really connect with the quote above. I have emptied my cup more or less a lot of times. Emptied my beliefs. Emptied my perspective. I’ve even tried to empty my language at times. It occurred to me that if you don’t empty your cup, not only can you not have another cup of tea, but you are also kept from trying some coffee — egg nog — cider — or whatever else you could put in that cup. And you might not ever even take the time to see if something else exists.

I’m about an hour or so outside of Charlotte. I have to pass through Charlotte to get to Greensboro. I’m having coffee or lunch with a CSer there in the afternoon, as my host will be getting into town later this evening.

I think I should work on getting up and on the road earlier to beat the heat. It feels like it’s going to be a hot ride today.

Emptied my stuff. — I got rid of a bunch of my belongings and junk before I left the rest at a friend’s house for the summer. I guess I don’t have that much– it all fit in my friend’s two door Honda Accord. But still, at least for a couple of months I don’t have to worry about my stuff. I’ve just got my motorcycle, and the contents of my backpack and my saddlebags. And I’ve emptied myself of all that other junk for a while and it makes me feel a little more free.

Well, time to get back on the road so I can beat some of the heat. At least I am heading north, so things should be getting cooler, theoretically.