I got going last night, heading east. A bit late in the day, around 3 PM - following registration, had to snag insurance and make sure things were tight and kosher. My first destination was to grab sleeping gear - I still needed a tent + sleeping bag, since luggage weight limits from Jetstar prevented me from bringing my backpacking gear from home.
After doing some research, I ended up deciding on a swag. "What is a swag?" you might ask! Oh, boy let me tell you.
Swags are a phenomenon found in the Land Down Under, generally taking the form of heavy-duty canvas single or double-person tents designed to outlive and outlast the worst the Australian Outback has to offer.
I settled on a Darche Dusk to Dawn 900, a pretty advanced (and really awful expensive) design that was widely rated across the board. This swag, similar to most of its class, comes with a 70mm foam mattress that is ridiculously comfortable.
Pictures of my camp with it (and others).
Awesome, right? Except ... some issues.
Swags are heavy. The Dusk to Dawn + the mattress comes in at 13.7 kg, or around 30 lbs. Also, this particular swag is really large - one of the smallest Darche offers, but still takes up my entire rear rack when compressed. So, the swag + the container led to this:
Does it look unstable to you? Yeah. It does to me too. I managed to set up a surprisingly secure setup, but ... oh my god travelling at 100 kilometers per hour down the M1 highway with this thing was unquestionably the most uncomfortable experience in a long time.
I hit a bump, the entire bike seeming to leap a mile to my anxious fingers. The speedometer hovers around 100. Anxiously, I glance in the mirror. Secure, but oh my god what if the straps are loose I'd lose the top container to that goddamn truck that's been tailgating me for the past 10 minutes what the hell dude PASS I'M ON A MOTORCYCLE AT NIGHT AND THIS IS NOT A GREAT SETUP AND REALLY FREAKING OUT PLEASE GO.
... Which brings me to the issue that brought me back to Melbourne.
Driving down the freeway at 100 kilometers per hour last night, I became very aware of an issue soon after leaving Tentworld.
At seemingly random intervals, the bike would suddenly lose power followed by the engine dying. These deaths tended to happen when the bike was at or around 100 km/h, but were not limited to it - there were deaths at 60 km/h, 80 and 70, as well as once when I was pulling to a stop.
I arrived at my campsite around 9 PM as a result, very freaked out by both the awkward luggage situation and this power loss.
"I'm sorry!!" I think as loud as I can at the machine behind me. The bike bucks and kicks. I pull in the clutch, try giving it gas - the engine revs but no power. I put on the blinker. There's a shoulder. Thank god. Pull over. There's a horn. A blast of air - a semi truck. Oh my sweet seven hells.
If the bike loses power at 100 km/h in a traffic situation, or on a hill, or when there's no shoulder? Super dangerous, especially given the weight of luggage on the back. Last night I got lucky - it was late, few cars, and always a shoulder.
Drove back this morning, very cognizant of my speed. Took a side road. It was beautiful - tried to take a video and stabilize it but wasn't perfect.
I'm going to try cleaning the carb, swapping the spark plugs, clearing the air intake valve and trying to remove dirt & debris from the fuel tank. It'll take a few days but hopefully manageable. Deets later.
I'm reading the Joe Sachs translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Of the numerous translations of NE in written literature, Sachs' translation came as a recommendation for its verbosity and focus on the direct translation of Aristotle's thinking.
Note: When writing about this, I'm going to make an effort to make content relevant to this journey and the world we currently live in. I'd like to dive right in since introductions can get tedious, but there will be points where I go in depth on topics that may not be of interest. Skip them if you wish. As with anything, do exactly what you want to do.
First, let's talk about virtue. I've only read Sachs' introduction so far, so most of what I'll say here is paraphrasing that, rather than Aristotle himself.
If Nicomachean Ethics is visualized as an architectural piece - a construction containing thoughts, ideas and concepts - then virtue is the cornerstone.
Robert Pirsig vaguely defines virtue as "the state of excellence".
Sachs, in his introduction, takes a bit of a more nuanced approach - the most direct definition Sachs provides, is that virtue is a state of balance. If we imagine every single decision as a conflict between the extrema of too little and too much, then the virtue state is the middle ground between them.
When faced with a decision, virtuous person will always choose the "balance" point. What "too little" and "too much" are is left to context. Further, virtue is an end goal in and of itself - the virtuous person will derive happiness and meaning from the act of choosing the virtuous option.
There's various dichotomies to explain this.
The truly virtuous person will then seek harmony and balance in all things in life - don't avoid conflict but don't encourage it. Don't avoid your peers but don't always seek them out.
It is very important to note these distinctions are not always cut and dry, and usually are contextual. For instance, when providing a public seminar, what is the correct amount to which you should only ask questions of your audience versus speaking to them? When on a roadtrip for self-discovery, what is the correct proportion of studying and working to socializing and exploring?
Context is all.
- Offrid, the Handmaid's Tale
Why pursue this virtue? What's so important about it?
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
Virtue ethics is primarily concerned with traits of character that are essential to human flourishing, not with the enumeration of duties.
... or, traits that allow one to lead a good life.
I'll top it here. Much more to read. Next entry will hopefully be a little less categorized and segmented, and more integrated - how virtue ethics relates to this journey and approaches to life.
