The Oregon Coast Continued - In Search of Kindness

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Transcribed from a letter written April 25th, 2015.



The last 3 or 4 days have been a wonderful lesson in how the World, or maybe a better way to say it, how our relationships and interactions with others, with our environment and with ourselves, operate through simple acts of kindness. It has been amazing...



The World is a good place, filled with genuinely good people. Our culture and social structure, overlays our goodness, or people’s genuine intentions, and in some ways makes them difficult to see. However, when goodness or kindness is solicited or requested, it resonates at such a high frequency that most people are almost instantly and intuitively driven to act in a kind manner. I started thinking about this when I was sitting at the Green Salmon Coffee Shop in Yachats, Oregon, when an 84 year old man asked to sit down with me at my table, since the place was very full. Instantly it was apparent that this man was the town’s welcoming committee. He introduced himself to me and asked what I was doing, how far I was riding, and if I was writing a book (he saw that I had been writing). I told him that I was trying to, and that’s when he said, "you should call it <em style="line-height: 1.42857143;">In Search of Kindness. I could never write a book, but if I did, that’s what I’d call it.” I actually was quite taken by the title and thought it was very thought-provoking. I told him this, and we were off to the races. As soon as it was apparent that we were going to have a long conversation, he pulled out his card, which had a quote he wanted to share with me, his pearl of wisdom. I felt honored and read a translation of <em style="line-height: 1.42857143;">The Tao Te Ching: “When you realize that you have enough, then the World is yours!” I was very inspired and told the man I agreed with every word. I was taken with how jovial and energetic this man was for his age. He seemed to speak with mannerisms and inflexions of a teenager, or someone truly in the prime of their life. Then he told me that he had just lost a loved one after a nine year battle with a chronic disease and I was floored. How could he be so full of joy? So I asked, and it was amazing what he told me: “In regards to health, the worst thing you can do to your body is have anger.”



I agreed that anger is a powerful force and can certainly cause great detriment when stored in the body. What an incredible chance meeting! We talked for a little while longer about kindness, and he mentioned how there is such a lack of it in our world today, which is what inspired his book title idea. I thought this an interesting perspective for someone seemingly so optimistic, so I began to argue the point that perhaps people are just scared to let their kindness show too publicly, because of the culture we’ve built and accepted. It is my experience that people are very kind when prompted. Unfortunately this is where our conversation ended because the man had to go to an aerobics class. On his way out he nodded in acknowledgement and wished me a journey full of kindness. The following 3 days were nothing but kindness. Everywhere I stopped, people were helping me, talking with me, and wishing me safe travels. There had been a lot of this already, but these 3 days were exceptional!



That same evening , as I was coming into Florence, I passed a house with mounds and mounds of dirt in the front yard. It was getting late and I didn’t know where I was going to camp for the night. I thought I’d ask this homeowner if I could camp on their front lawn, in exchange for laboring in his yard for a few hours the following morning. When I entered the driveway, I found a 65 year old man bent over with a shovel, attempting to dig a trench for a waterline. He was inside of a huge pit, which he later told me was going to be the basement of an art studio he was building. I offerred to help him in exchange for sleeping in his yard and he quickly showed me what he was doing. We worked for about an hour and a half. The ground was clay and compacted sand, so the going was very slow. We eventually finished and he asked me if I had any laundry to do. I was flabbergasted, and extremely grateful. As we walked back to the house, he pointed to the guest house, and told me that’s where I’d be sleeping, if I wanted, but that I’d have to shower in the main house because the hot water wasn’t turned on in the guest house. I was so overcome at the generosity this man was showering on me, considering my very simple and meager proposition. I would have been happy and grateful to sleep in his yard, but instead, I was clean and refreshed, had laundry going, and over a delicious bowl of spaghetti, we had great conversations about art and life. A new friendship was born...a friendship of kindness.



A day later I arrived in the sleepy town of Bandon, Oregon, and had a wonderful conversation with a young young man at the Bandon Coffee Shop. We talked about lifestyle choices, and amongst other things, God, religion, and politics. It was a great precursor to the rest of my afternoon, which I spent at the Washed Ashore Gallery. They are operated by a non-profit, WashedAshore.org, and represent an extension of kindness to our planet, which brought tears to my eyes as I walked through the gallery entrance. They have organized coastal beach cleanup all along the Oregon Coast, and have taken tons and tons of plastic debris and transformed it into gigantic art sculptures that circulate around the world to different aquariums and schools to educate the public on the destruction that plastics have on our oceans. I was amazed and disgusted by what I saw. The degree to which plastics and a “single-use” lifestyle have affected our oceans is unbelievable. I already knew a lot of the information I read at the gallery, but to see all of the plastic made into artwork was inspirational in the way that it was using something so positive and uplifting as art to show others, in an impactful way, what we are collectively doing to our planet. It most certainly left me in absolute agreement with Kenny Ausubel of the Bioneers, who maintains that the next healthcare model must take into account our relationship to the environment. Perhaps the next generation of physicians need to accept the call to also be activists, after all these are changing times and more help is needed.



I spent all afternoon in the Washed Ashore Gallery. They have a workshop where volunteers are able to assemble pieces for the giant sculptures – right now they are working on a marlin. I met Angela, the lead artist and founder of Washed Ashore, and also one of her assistants, Ksenya. Ksenya and I hit it off immediately. She answered all of my questions about the project and I answered all of her questions about my trip. When they were getting ready to close, I was invited to camp out at “the hut,” which is what Ksenya calls her home. I couldn’t refuse. We managed to get “Buttercup,” which is what I call my bike, into her tiny Toyota, as well as all of my panniers, and she gave me a quick tour of Bandon before heading to “the hut.”



It was more like a mountaintop pagoda than a hut, but it was very small. It was like a fairytale how it was situated on a mountaintop overlooking the ocean and a forgotten and hidden lake along the Eastern slope, all surrounded by pines. It was heaven. Another building, nestled into the trees, housed a bathroom with a giant bathtub, which was offered to me! Um....yeas please!



After I set up my tent in a little clearing next to the chicken coup, we made a wonderful dinner of clam chowder and kale salad. As we watched the sun sink into the ocean, we began one of the most delightful and inspiring conversations about food and consciousness that I’ve had in a long while. Our conversation continued as we mused to a fire on the other side of the “hut.” After it started getting late, I ended this incredible day with a relaxing bubble bath. The next morning we ate breakfast and exchanged information, both a philosophical friend and richer in our mutual wisdom, all out of kindness.



After these past two days I was almost afraid to stop at the next town, Langlois, as I needed to be getting South, having only ridden 20 miles the previous day. I did need a cup of coffee and to write some of these things down, plus it had started to rain, so I stopped in at the Greasy Spoon Diner, the only place in Langlois aside from the Post Office. I ordered a cup of coffee and sat down at a booth by the door, one of 6 tables in the whole place. I opened my journal and began writing. It didn’t take long before the waitress and I were good friends. She had taken the Coast Road to San Diego in October so we had much to discuss. Who would have known Teresa Bird, now the owner of “Pie is All You Need,” would find Langlois, Oregon on her way down the coast, and then return to work at a local organic farm and continue her passion for baking? She had quite a story, and had travelled from coast to coast and back again, selling homemade pies out of her VW Van, amazing! She hasn’t set up her pie operation fully yet, and is only baking them for the Greasy Spoon on weekends – I unfortunately missed it by 1 day.



As the restaurant began to fill up around 1 p.m., I found myself the only person at a 4 person table. I’d already been there 2 hours or so and felt a little nervous, that maybe I should move, but instead I kept writing and began to simply invite people to sit at my table. It was great. I met a camp host at a State Park, who was delightful, and her friend from Long Beach, Washington, both of whom were coming back from a lighthouse tour (I think they paid for my coffee and pancakes, Thank You!). A retired psychiatric nurse sat with us, then a fellow bike traveller sat down for about 10 minutes to have a fast cup of coffee. It was a revolving table for about an hour and a half, with everyone talking and sharing stories. When the camp host and her friend left, we all hugged. I hope I run into them again, they were delightful. Typically we don’t feel comfortable sitting with other people in a restaurant setting. At first, it was a little awkward perhaps, but as soon as we all smiled and decided to exchange kindness with one another, we were all instantly friends.



That was the last 3 days, but I’m sure there is more kindness to found around the corner.



“No Cellphone, No Computer, No Problem.”



Let us all live with love in our hearts and a smile on our faces,



Node S. – Natty Pilgrim

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