Recuperation
While riding down a steep slope, with rocky terrain, hit an especially rocky section. Deciding whether to walk it or ride it, decided to ride it. Even before heading into it, I thought it was a poor idea. Went flying head-first over the handlebar. Landed on my two most valuable possessions, my face and my laptop.
What a situation.
Not exactly what I want, but I have to deal with it.
I guess you have to adapt, deal with situation.
So, with broken laptop, broken glasses, broken heart, I continue. At least happy to have a way on!
It takes some adjustment, but honestly most of these things that we get used to, we can do without. After a short while, we adapt, forget about the old stuff, and take the new stuff as the new old stuff.
Back in mango-growing area. So far haven't found many of my favorite types of mango in Republica Dominicana. Nor anywhere near as many as in Cuba, Puerto Rico. Still, at least some.
I've also become more of a guava enthusiast in the Caribbean.
Right at the small settlement at the peak, some kind people assisted me in fixing the bike. The ride down the other side went way smoother, the trail was at an easier slope, and had fewer rocks.
Now in Navarrete, another town. This one more boring than some of the previous ones. Still, it does have some socialist graffiti, which I haven't seen much of around RD.
A split-section decision can wipe out weeks, months, or even years of work. I liken this to Warren Buffet's comments on it taking fifteen years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.
It's tough to sustain losses, but it's part of the adventure.
It knocks you off track. I think it's important to remain on track. To make the effort to restore, although not exactly, your goals, if you still retain them. Which I largely do.
It can also provide an opportunity to regrow in different directions. I liken this to Germany and Japan's rapid economic development in the latter half of the twentieth century.
The psychological toll can in some ways be harder to bear than the financial and logistical tolls. Like dealing with loss of confidence etc. after suffering from a crime.
It's a complex and messy thing, recovering from a mistake. Bill Gates noted that failure can be a better teacher than success.
For me, I'm trying to become less dependent on expectations. To realize that plans are meant to go wrong (as rules are made to be broken).
Also, I'm trying to become more tolerant of failures, of my own and other people's. We all strive in a difficult environment. It's normal for things to go wrong often.
The wounds heal, the parts get replaced. After a while, the mistakes get replaced, and turn into decent stories. We grow through problems. I still think it's important to take risks, make mistakes, etc. Of course, sometimes they bear costs, negative consequences.
Overall, to get anywhere, you need to take the occasional step back.
Take your lumps. School of hard knocks.
I think that this tumble also brought me back to earth, figuratively. I'm more cognizant now of some of my idealistic notions (positive or negative), as such, rather than confusing them with reality to the same extent that I did before.
Things break. It's a question of when, not if. It makes sense to plan around some destruction here and there.
Same goes for people, or anything. That's part of the process of replacement, improvement.
I may go west next. I was thinking of heading north to the coast. However, given my loss of equipment, it may instead make more sense to spend a longer while in this area before heading to the coast. Also, this way I think there's a shallower gradient over the hills to the coast. Maybe I'll still go north though.
Things operate on a different schedule here. After a number of recent occasions of going to a store, be it a supermarket or computer repair store, and seeing it closed in the middle of the day, I asked someone and realized/remembered that it's common for stores to close down during lunch and reopen later in the day.
Modern technology makes such losses much more bearable. So much stuff is automatically synced to the cloud, that you hardly lose a day's work in switching from one machine to another.
Things seem to be working somewhat faster, now that I'm readjusting. Probably keep going this weekend, even though it's looking like difficult weather.
Rock & Roll!