Thoughts from Eastern Europe  The rarely-seen morning sunlight glimmers in the side mirrors as I tra

Thoughts from Eastern Europe  The rarely-seen morning sunlight glimmers in the side mirrors as I travel along the gently-winding country roads between Białystok and Rzeszow. The quiet time alone in the car during the previous weeks in Russia and the Baltic countries puts my mind on a journey of its own; ordering old thoughts, discovering new ones; the mental creativity and organisation putting me into a perfect blissful little state. A slither of sunlight on the skin feels like heaven during a wet, dark and cold Northern Europe in winter. Sunlight is a novelty for sure and it must have suddenly awoken a new idea in me. However, it came as more of a cold slap in the face when the more chilly, foggy, incoherent side of our perceived normalcy revealed itself to me.  I realised at that moment it was better that I delete the BBC News app from my phone; better to remove such nonsense from my life.  It is preferable to use your own eyes to judge the world, rather than blindly digest the shit you are fed. The West has lost its way and with the aid of such media, the frequently criticised Eastern European nations actually appear to me to be rather sensible places – not close-minded, backward and bigoted. They are friendly, welcoming, open-minded, grounded places. Reading the news, though, you would not think that. Media paint pictures with brooms and people hang them as art; if I didn’t visit myself, I’d never know such truths.(Białystok, northwest Poland)(Białystok, northwest Poland)(Photo: just south of Białystok, northeastern Poland)   What struck me harder that morning than my vision competing with the bright light coming through the window-shield was the internal reflections going on in my head. 1) during our travels in Kenya, we saw women and children who walk up to five kilometres per day with buckets on their heads to fetch water for the family to drink and wash with. I remember seeing the hope of a better future through the simple smiles on their faces. 2) At the same time other thoughts of several Chinese adults that travelled with us on adventures who tirelessly complained that how travelling and sitting in vehicles was tiring. (Oh, how they should carry tanks of water on their heads for a while!). Then 3) not far from right here in Poland, further out in Western Europe, mass protests going on with groups like ‘extinction rebellion’ screeching that the world will end if we do not out rightly ban all use of motor vehicles and industry. That naïve bunch would have us banished back to the dark in order to ‘save the planet’. But we know who needs to be rescued, and it is not the planet. You can see the misdirected anger and overt lostness in their existence, but they can’t see it. I wish they had to carry water on their heads for miles each day too.  Humans do not know what they want and need. They do not know what they are doing either. At one end of the world they trudge long distances and wish for cars. At the other, they are in cars complaining that it is difficult sitting inside them. And at the another, they have known cars for too long that they wish to destroy them and to walk again. This is all too confusing for me; for a simple guy like me. If only humans could save themselves from themselves…. (Photo: Lublin, Poland)(Photo: Icy country backroads - this is actually in Lithuania)As I head along with the sun once more pushing through the morning mist, frost on the grassy fields shimmering beneath, I wonder just how much we are unable to see. I ponder over how often we are blinded by our own situations. We seem to never understand what we are living. Over-comfort, distorted realities, self-deceit, abject poverty; in the end, no matter the situation and location, humans are all suffering from something - whether it be of true or perceived misfortune, real-world or self-inflicted misery. African, European, Asian, always occupied with concerns; some flaunting their circumstances to my east and others their moral superiority to my west, others with buckets on their heads.   It’s 9am, and the sun has already retreated here in rural eastern Poland, spits of rain already beginning to fall. It is really good to be on the road, in a part of the world that currently, still seems to be free of such ‘issues’ – not too poor, not too rich, not too far from its roots, not too far up in the air. Being the traveler that I am, I am luckily free from being a participant in the illogicalness of societies, unrestrictedly observing from the outside, able to close the windows and lock the doors during the dark of the days. And for those people who sense the same, maybe you too should just hop into the car.And on a side note, I’d like to whisper a quiet word of congratulations to Poland.(Photo: the first real piece of sunlight I saw in a month, gone by 9am) -- source link

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