“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s Life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your Heart and intuition”
~ Steve Jobs ~

“Thanks for writing back and this is more or less [more!] in response to your last email.

It has been interesting to have met you on line while remembering your name popping up here and there on the few pages of Social Media I sometimes indulge myself posting on. I write "out of curiosity" in the subject because it is just that. Neither of us are unique towards the mysterious ways our minds work, just different as the variety of cultures and childhoods we have been exposed to which remain with us having shaped seemingly forever our own directions including likes and dislikes hopefully without being judgmental.

Maybe deep down on this end I try too hard to understand others and their paths as surprises then on awaits as a puzzle which finally forms an image… or not!

My stage, your stage, their stages, all are so different even if the common denominator is this beautiful Earth we live on going through its own changes and yet, we each see it differently.

Isn’t there a saying "curiosity killed the cat…?" or something like it?

As I read bits and pieces of your "publicized" Journey, I see that you call yourself a Blogger and a Writer. I wonder what it feels like to be as such. I have never been a Blogger, I don’t even consider myself a Writer even with a published Book, for that matter I don’t also even consider myself a photographer. I just take photos. I am however proud to say that within this world of editing my Photoshop is my patience. As you know, photography is all about the light. I searched a bit if you had a published book but could not find anything. I guess the word "writer" these days has become a term one uses within a much wider range arena, maybe as a badge seemingly which has become a bit too common for my taste when compared to the Classics I read.

We come, I come, from humble backgrounds, an Armenian background of survival throughout the centuries of occupations, wars and a Genocide of two and half million Armenians in 1915 at the hands of the Turks. It is I know old story. The older generation still holds a deep grudge as my Mother did, the new generation only wants recognition but talking about it would be talking about politics, a subject I do not approach. The key word here being “humble”.

I think, and I say this lightly, every Armenian is somewhat a Cultural Artist! We meander on our paths, we write a lot, paint and draw, we play music and dance and we love to cook and feed others! Besides those deep roots I have also had the good fortune to have been born in France and lived there throughout my own schooling. A few years in Switzerland, travels to Africa were common, Middle East in peaceful times was Paradise. Exposed to 2000 and more years of Literature, Philosophy, Arts, Music, so many different Cultures and lets not forget… the cheeses and the good wines. I think everyone wrote and we read. We read as there was no end to it, there still isn’t as I just myself unpacked four boxes I had left behind 11 years ago when we left for our "The Ride" forgetting how many Books now are staring at me! Approaching 70 the thought that I will not live long enough to read them all again crossed my mind! At least I did once… I also think we all wrote a Journal of some sort, some Poems as I remember my early teen years when I only wore black for a couple seasons and tried to rhyme way too many sentences. We just never called ourselves "writers".

So when we left, 11 years ago throughout much havoc and pain after losing Lance, I set up to write a Journal, something I still do. As I wrote not too long ago, it is my validation, my conversation with myself. Not a Blog. Not a Travel Blog as you do which I must say is interesting to read while being written by an Easterner visiting the West and all in between. By the way, I do need to mention that I appreciate your own words in your last email as to not "lecturing me nor saying I should be any different" [quote] because truly no one can or should or even could. I would not want as such as I would not want for anyone to feel what I feel having lost the outmost precious person in Life.

And so we go back to the cultural background. A background which remains strong within me while I have not adapted as well as you to the "new present". My Journal is on the Internet, yes, but that was not the original plan for sure as the person that helped me set it up as such, while being myself so ignorant of computers and Internet. I still am! I only had a few Friends at the time and thought "what would be the harm?". No one will read it anyhow. So I realize we have started in opposite directions, different starting lines, and that is where one of my curiosity "aspects" lies. You set up to invite the crowd, new Friends [which myself I call "acquaintances" as I still only have just a handful of Friends throughout these close to nine million readers], you set up to visit people and stay at their homes, a new approach for me I must say yet, not uncommon these days since I have heard of “couch surfing. I am guessing you set up your own “couch surfing” network. To this day, 11 years later there is still only three or four homes we will stop by to visit, cook, socialize and spend the night. You had mentioned in one of your past emails that going in blindly in others homes at times was close to a disaster and had to leave the next day instead of days ahead. I did not read that anywhere but can only imagine how it went, maybe even frightened you when you realized, again as you said, that these people were not in real Life who they were on Facebook. Fairly common fact. I think, in my humble opinion, it would be  good to also express the negative impact of publicizing your “needs” on the road if only to help others on similar paths. 

There is a saying that comes to mind "working the crowd". Is that correct? As it seems that you set up to do so, as everything else there are compromises. I in advance apologize if I am incorrect as I still mentally translate much from my maternal French language.

Another difference in direction I must say is the fact that I can only imagine the effort[s] you are putting into your Blog. All the constant reminders to the readers old and new of how and why you did your "The Ride" for a couple of years in your car. It must be exhausting considering you also work even if part time. There is a satisfaction of "sharing" we both have and share, yet I feel compared to your "work" that my Journal is effortless, as effortless as my conversations with myself! That is what can happen when one lives with their best Buddy, a Dog named Spirit…

Yet, as you wrote, and "Thank You" for the insight, you taught me a new word "Aspie", [can I say "Nice meeting an Aspie"?], and at the same time you leave me confused as you also write that being an Aspie has nothing to do with a higher intelligence but most have a well above normal IQ. I now feel ignorant, even wondering if I should feel intimidated by you as no one throughout my Life has ever proclaimed so blatantly “I have a higher IQ”. I am wondering if a higher IQ such as yours could be the same as a higher intelligence and also the fact that I don’t even know my own!

As time moves on I am finding myself more and more "calling" my Friends and Acquaintances. There is a sense of reality versus an email as such where I am so aware that one wrong word and the whole meaning of the email could go sour. I would have truly enjoyed conversing with you and so sorry you do not like talking over the telephone. I wonder what it is that as you said makes you feel uncomfortable. Too real maybe? Is there a hidden reason as to also maybe exposing your real self versus unanimated pages of Social Media? I wonder. I remember the days when telephone was impersonal! It was more "let’s get together for a cup of coffee". But, you being in Upstate New York and me being in New Mexico, that cup of coffee [or tea!] will have to wait.

You live in a beautiful area and I remember writing you that I am very familiar with it being that my Port of Entry many Moons ago was Philadelphia and I quickly adventured myself North of it, as also having the Merrill-Lynch families as clients cooking for them in Schenectady. I remember tears rolling down my face the very first time I saw the color changes of the leaves. I will never forget that day, that curve when I stopped the motorcycle and stood there admiring Mother Nature’s canvas.

It was also interesting to read about your ancestry coming on the Mayflower and yet, considering the Genocide the Natives endured I will not elaborate on that fact. Again, that would be politics writing about the white at the time unknown to them men generally brutally taking over the land and more. There is a great book called "New York" which I found very interesting filled with facts from the day the Dutch landed in Manhattan.

Well my Dear, this should conclude my email to you hoping it finds you at Peace with at least one of the many quotes you publish.”

Stay well
Ara and Spirit
www.theoasisofmysoul.com
www.FreedomOnBothEndsOfTheLeash.com