East. Day 65. And home.

August 12, 2016

Clare to Lupton, Michigan

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Thank you Karen and Ron for a wonderful stay at the Doherty Hotel.

It was already steamy, albeit cloudy, when I rolled my rig out its back doors. Out front, I sat on a bench to FaceTime Mom.

My bike resting against the Doherty Hotel.

By 7:45 a.m. I launched for home.

I thought about how my "Forrest Gump" ride did not turn out to be my version of "ride until I am done." I might have misremembered Gump's "run until he was done." He said he just felt like running. Likely he ran from grief or ran until he could embrace his grief. Either way, my riding was coming face to face with grief.

And what promise did my past fill? A base of love on which to build confidence to follow my heart?

In Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor E. Frankl wrote that man finds meaning by taking responsibility for the actualization of his life, that meaning comes when we transcend the self and look outward--to nature, in service to others, in loving another person. A survivor of concentration camps during the holocaust, Frankl asserted that life can have meaning even in the face of, and in spite of, extreme suffering.

"What matters," Frankl wrote, "is to make the best of any give situation."

He argued that faced with tragedy, human potential "always allows for 1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment; 2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and 3) deriving from life's transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action."

Did I, or will I, reach my potential? That I was capable of it, I was sure. I set guilt aside and moved forward. I took responsibility.

Andy, I made the most of my situation. I came home.

An "almost home" welcome by friends, on M-30, 20-some miles from the patch.

A FaceTime pause with Mom before the last hill home.

My greeting committee! Andy, Mandy, Gus, and Sharon.

Andy catches a photo as I arrive.