I am a big lover of TED talks<\/a>, and was super excited to see that TEDX is coming to the Bay Area<\/a>. Speaking of long car rides, some of my greatest inspirations have come while listening to a TED talk. If you want to become a better person listen to these talks while doing your 4 hour body workouts. It is like Whey protein for the mind. And it’s free to boot.<\/p>\n When I launched over to the TedX web site to see the lineup of speakers I noticed that Nicole Daedone will be speaking. Honestly I laughed, how strange the world is sometimes. This is proof that the flow of ideas tends to acquiesce.<\/p>\n Following the link I noticed she was interviewing a young entrepreneur by the name of Kate Northrup (the video no longer exists).<\/p>\n I am constantly inspired by the young and adventurous, the free of heart, and those individuals that seem to hold wisdom and grace beyond their years. Kate seems to be one of these individuals.<\/p>\n I had a chance to sit next to Kate briefly for one of the group sessions during our “OM’ing” weekend. She and her boyfriend reminded me of the freedom of youth, the movement of an idea, and the beauty and spirit of life. I feel honored to have shared that space.<\/p>\n Memories at 246,000 miles:<\/span><\/p>\n During our last group session of the weekend I realized that my wife and I were one of the only couples who had been married and together for so long.\u00a0 As a new \u201cOM\u2019er\u201d this made me very proud. Sometimes as we grow old together as a couple and become attached to our routines it is increasingly more difficult to make a change.\u00a0 This, of course is also when it is the most necessary.<\/p>\n This weekend we took my wife’s very first car to the impound lot. We had to let her go, she couldn\u2019t pass smog.\u00a0 According to the state of California this is where the relationship with your car must end.<\/p>\n My wife was visibly upset as the large Caterpillar tractor scooped up the car like a twig and took it to the impound lot. I was just happy we were actually getting money for it, I couldn\u2019t understand why she would be upset. But it occurred to me today after listening to Nicole and Kate speak about freedom why my wife was so sad. These are the words she expressed later that day:<\/p>\n It was my first car really. I had fun buying it with Mom. It had a beautiful sun roof, power windows, a fold down back seat, stick shift, CD player and it was red. This was not my first choice of color, but sometimes in life we have to make compromises. We had fun shopping for it and I got to see my Mom at her best haggling for a great deal.<\/p>\n I got it my junior year of college and had fun parking on the steep slopes of Queen Anne Hill in Seattle. Aside from the few love taps\/scratches to my fellow parallel parkers, I got quite good at parallel parking on steep hills.<\/p>\n My first real road trip was in that car. I left on an early summer day with the music blaring and the windows down, to California, to see my sweetie (That’s ME!<\/a>)<\/span> at his Dad’s land in Northern California. I never had so much fun driving a car. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a car ride that long by myself since, and it will be a cherished memory. The sky was the limit and I had my whole life ahead of me. I remember feeling so free!<\/p>\n We pulled it cross country behind a U-Haul. Remembering winters in New Jersey and the “thunk” “thunk” of the chains in the snow only to realize when we stopped that the chains had been whipping the outside wheel well. Bumps and chips here and there and it was starting to look its age. Then we were rear ended. It got some body work + a new paint job to boot; all covered by insurance and it was looking as good as new!<\/p>\n Back to the West coast 3yrs later and this time she had to make the drive solo. She pulled our little sail boat and Stephen’s 500+ lbs. of medical books in the back seat. She did pretty well until both her back wheels shredded and the struts gave out under the weight of it all. Ah the story I could place here about being stranded in the middle of Utah with a homicidal tow truck driver. But alas, this post is already too long.<\/p>\n She brought both our children home from the hospital and after our son’s birth she rolled over to 200,000 miles. In her later days she was resolved to being the commuter car for my husband and we had a love\/hate relationship with her. Her paint job was gone and she looked terrible. She was being held together by a good mechanic practicing palliative care on a car.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n As we stood there and watched our car get carried away a certain part of our youth wen’t with it. That part which we could still tangibly hold onto. The memories of wind in our hair, the open road, and zero responsibilities. To be dismantled and crushed the following Thursday. Can you get a more demoralizing analogy of life?<\/p>\n Kate Northrups Freedom Tour<\/a> and other blogs like it remind me of the person I used to be. They also remind me of the person my wife and I are and the people we want our kids to be. Throwing caution into the wind should not be reserved for those under 30, single, or the non-parenting crowd.<\/p>\n It makes we wonder though, will these “technomadic” youth be able to sustain this life forever? Or is this the new definition of life, in an ever more location independent world? The internet truly is “creating markets that enable us to own much less”<\/strong>. With this comes mobility and freedom, yet allows us to maintain and build communities in a way never before possible. The 4 hour life defined.<\/p>\n So goodbye my lovely Mazda with 246k miles, and although I yearn for those lost days of freedom, I know that those miles we lament were the foundation of this year’s shiny new model<\/strong>. The only difference is this time around we need two rear facing car seats and a bottle of Scotch Guard. Yes, less sexy for sure, but filled with infinite possibilities.<\/p>\n My Recent Reads:<\/p>\n Some of my best thoughts occur on long rambling car rides. The only problem is driving with one hand while simultaneously trying to record that moment of inspiration can be a difficult and often life threatening prospect. But I rationalize it, sometimes capturing that one thought seems worth risking my life. Life, it just so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[52,3,12],"tags":[99,101,100,1119,98],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1tiSR-fL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.4hourlife.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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