Teacher on Two Wheels

Above: Moto holding his bike club flag. International Friendship!! I like the message just under his nose–it suited him on the day we met.

Tuesday 2/3/09 Carmen de Areca, Argentina

The post I put up a few weeks ago about Moto, the cycle touring grandfather from Japan, generated a lot of interest from readers. A bunch of folks, via comments to that post as well as emails, told me how inspired they were by hearing Moto’s story.

Below is one comment I received from a regular reader of this website. I thought it was interesting and wanted to share it with everyone.

As always, I encourage readers of the site to leave comments whenever they come across a post that strikes them.

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I couldn’t resist responding to your entry on Moto, the Japanese 61 year old you met. You see, I turn 74 on Wednesday. However, years ago, I taught a college course in Thanatology — a course mainly for Nurses who confronted death on a daily basis. I always started the semester by indicating that the class was not really about death, but about life and living. As an exercise I had the students draw a timeline of their life — into the future and with a definite ending date. It was one of the gimmicks I used to help young people confront their mortality. I suggested that to help them in the exercise they find a famous person who was born a century before them and then note the milestones in his or her life and the significant dates along the way (marriage, birth of children, achievements, death). Since I was born in 1935, I had chosen a famous person born in 1835 — he happened to be Mark Twain. As you may know, Twain wrote and traveled a lot in his latter years — something I emulated. But to get to my point, Mark Twain died in 1910 — are you with me? Next year is 2010. As I followed his milestones, I checked them off, and tried to keep up with his activity in my own life. No, I never attained his level of fame — but I will soon cross off his final milestone. I would tell my class that my goal was to live my life to the fullest and consider it a success if I kept as active as Mark Twain till I reached his age of 75. Whatever I would be able to do after 2010, I’d consider a bonus. Up until today, the one date I had some concern about was 2007 — because that was the year I reached the age at which my dad died. He died in 1982 at the age of 72. So I’ve outlived him by 2 years. Sorry to burden you with this bit of chatter, but it was a good way to confront my 74th birthday (my family was here today to celebrate with me). Inspired by your active and cheerful friend, Moto, and your questions in your blog, I feel good at having been able to share this bit of information. The fact is, actually, that I am more active at 74 than Mark Twain was at this point in his life. Last year I went to Australia, New Zealand, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia. This year I am scheduled to go to San Francisco in March and Mexico in November. I’m working two jobs that I love: Alumni Coordinator, where I am able to interview people like you via SKYPE (who knew that that would be possible in my lifetime?) and County Historian — where I can share my love of history with thousands of people every year through my lectures and writing. I wish I had done a little more physical activity in recent years, as I can feel the effects of a sedentary life in my bones and muscles. However, I’m working on it — and riding vicariously with you on your great adventure helps. Life is good with 4 great children and 4 wonderful grandchildren and a very supportive wife. Mark Twain traveled extensively in 1907 and was still writing in 1909 — so he lived according to one of my mottos: I’d rather wear out than rust out….
I’d like to meet Moto and compare notes. Our secret?– smile a lot and enjoy what you do (or better, do what you enjoy!)