Unless you’re that guy from Sturgis who strapped wheels and a motor to his living room recliner to cruise down Main Street in style, most easy chairs will only take you nowhere, fast.  The chaise lounge is the ultimate in comfort, and when you sink deep into that fluffy soft cushion, all ambition is forgotten. Laziness takes it’s place and your “honey dew” list gets bigger and bigger until you just give up.  And normally that would be fine, but I have a serious problem with laziness, and I refuse to be taken along for a ride that’s going nowhere.  I’m not long for this earth, so I’d like to achieve a few things before I check out.  One of those things is to restore a couple of lost freedoms to riders in California , while trying to preserve others. No matter how hard I may work, I’m only one guy, and I realize that it’s going to take a concerted effort by a dedicated team of professionals with a vested interest in the outcome to get the job done.

“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”

~Anne Frank

   I was exchanging emails with one our freedom fighting legends a few weeks ago.  I was bitching out loud about a number of positions within the organization that I believe should be filled. Good volunteers are hard to find, especially when it’s a thankless job with no pay.  The email reply spoke volumes about his character.  He says, “Perhaps I could take on more responsibility?”  It infuriated me. Here’s a selfless individual who has already given of himself tirelessly and is still willing to give up a little more of the time he already doesn’t have to make sacrifices for the rest of us. All we really needed in this instance was for one new person to step forward and fill an empty slot. Why must one individual carry the entire burden for an organization of thousands? The word martyr comes to mind. The unacceptable consequence to martyrdom is that one must die in order to fulfill the prophecy, and I don’t want him flyin’ off to heaven just yet because he’s got a lot more good years in him.  This guy is what’s right about the organization.

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.”

~Lord Chesterfield

   I responded to the email with a story of valor from the pathetic high point of my under-achieving life, high school! I related to him the story of when I was young and skinny and spent all my time running on the school track team.  At one particular meet, I won all four of my races. A clean sweep tri-fecta and one for the road. Yet, when the team piled on the bus afterwards, the Coach went ballistic, yellin’ and screamin’ at how lousy we were because as a team, we had lost the competition.  Here I am looking at four blue ribbons, as good as it gets, but the team still lost. Needless to say, I ran a lot harder at practice after that defeat because I never wanted to let my Coach down again. Realistically, I was probably only trying to impress the Coach’s daughter, but I think there’s a life lesson hidden in there somewhere about hard work.  Sometimes we all need to work a little harder, each of us for different reasons, and as a team, we have to help each other in overcoming the weaknesses which affect us all.  Folks, we need people to step forward and assume responsibility for the future of this organization.  If there’s a job opening, an empty slot somewhere, we need you to fill it with your name.

“Some folks can look so busy doing nothing that they seem indispensable.”

~Kin Hubbard

   I, myself, find purpose, drive, and a rushed sense of work ethic from Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition.  On his 31st birthday, he sat in the middle of the country thinking he'd contributed nothing to the advancement of mankind. He'd just conquered half the continent and still seemed not content. He describes how I feel, at this time in my life, better than I ever could.....

"This day I completed my thirty first year, and conceived that I had in all human probability now existed about half the period which I am to remain in this Sublunary world. I reflected that I had as yet done but little, very little, indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance the information of the succeeding generation. I viewed with regret the many hours I have spent in indolence, and now soarly feel the want of that information which those hours would have given me had they been judiciously expended. but since they are past and cannot be recalled, I dash from me the gloomy thought, and resolved in future, to redouble my exertions and at least endeavour to promote those two primary objects of human existence, by giving them the aid of that portion of talents which nature and fortune have bestowed on me: or in future, to live for mankind, as I have heretofore lived for myself."  ~Meriwether Lewis, August 18, 1805

Just 4 years later, Lewis lay dead outside a Kentucky roadhouse near the Natchez Trace. Some say suicide, some say murder. Either way, the tragedy of a life unfulfilled is what drives me. It’s not about ambition, it’s about making a difference before I’m gone. Never again will I sit around wondering what I could have done better. I have a sense of purpose, I know what I want to achieve before I’m scattered to the wind. What I’m searching for is like minded individuals who are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to make change happen in California, so that one day we’ll have stories of greatness to tell around the campfire at journey’s end. We’ll all share in the spoils of self discovery. So, un-strap your ass from that high speed chaise to nowhere and let’s hit the open road for a modern day adventure in regaining lost freedoms.  Whaddya say?  Let’s hit the highway and get some wind in your…chair!

“A life of leisure and a life of laziness are two things. There will be sleeping enough in the grave.”

~Benjamin Franklin