When I decided to stop traveling and move back to the northwest, I rented a house in a rural area.  I have done the urban lifestyle for a few years and I just decided it was time to get back to my roots.  It is a fantastic house in a great location and has lots of outdoor space to play in.  The only problem with it so far is its lack of access to public transit.  Because of that I have found myself driving everywhere and that isn’t going to work for me.

So the other day I got my bike tuned up with a renewed zeal to ride everywhere and stop using my car.  The only thing I don’t yet have are new lights for my bike, but those will come in time and as the days get lighter longer, they won’t even be needed.  In the meantime, I am walking the 2 miles to the nearest bus stop.

I lamented that at first but then the other night, my attitude totally turned around.  I wanted to go downtown to meet some friends for happy hour.  The commute by bus is 33 minutes from the bus stop and costs $2.50.  So round-trip is $5 and about an hour commute. Driving at that time of day would have been longer and it would have cost me more money in gas, so economically it made sense.  There is also the alcohol aspect.  I don’t drink and drive so the bus is a great option to be able to enjoy happy hour and then let someone else do the driving for me after I have had a couple of glasses of wine, or in the case of Wednesday, vodka tonics.

So I am walking to the bus stop and on the way I was thinking about a Facebook conversation about race, class, and privilege. I remembered watching a movie called the Long Walk Home about the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. It was sparked when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger and was arrested.  At that time, white people boarded the bus and filled up the rows starting in the front and moving toward the back.  Black people started in the back and filled in the rows moving toward the front. When the rows met and the bus was full, black passengers would have to stand if they got on the bus.  If a white person entered the entire first row of blacks had to stand and give their row to a white person.  Rosa Parks refused.  This sparked a bus boycott.

Boycotts are hard things to pull off. A person has to be committed to their cause enough to sacrifice whatever service or product they are receiving from the entity they are boycotting.  And it has to be a big enough sacrifice by enough people to make a difference.  Since 75% of the bus ridership was African-American, the Montgomery boycott was successful in ending segregation on public buses, but it wasn’t without cost to the people who were standing their ground for what they believed was right.

There were people that had to get up long before dawn to walk the 10 miles to work, work all day, then walk the 10 miles home at which time, they had to take care of their chores at home also.  Ten miles.  Even at a decent clip of 4 mph, that is at least 5 hours walking time each day.  That meant leaving home at least by 5:30 in the morning if you were working 8-5 and getting home past 7:30. That is sacrificing for your beliefs.  Who to hell am I to be bitching about 2 miles to the bus stop?  In Nepal and Spain, I walked or cycled almost exclusively except for a couple of times of riding on the bus. How does being back in the land of great roads and gas sucking SUV’s all of sudden turn me into a pile of mush that I can’t walk a couple of miles?

So there was a whole shift in my attitude.  I realized it is worth a 4 mile round trip.  In reality, the 4 extra miles of working out is good for my physical health. Being outdoors for that extra hour every day makes also me more centered and contributes to my overall well-being. I get to walk through an amazingly beautiful area with wetlands and eagles and even saw a beautiful blue jay on my walk yesterday. And I believe that taking public transit, walking, or riding my bike is better for the environment.  So I am trying to make that walk be part of my routine.  Whether headed to the bus stop, the gym, or wherever I am going, it is only two miles there and two miles back.  It isn’t like it is a long walk home.