MF First Time

From: Andreas Deppner (atomic-s@muenster.de)
Date: Fri Nov 03 2000 - 10:34:05 GMT


Happy ho,

A never ending love affair. I fell into love with words - got hooked and
changed. How did it start ? - Nearly twenty years ago. I did my army service
and was bored and did not like it. Made me ready for the BIG ESCAPE. And I
wanted to go by motorcycle. Due to whatever reason my captaÌn said that I
should drive and maintain his truck - which I did and which gave me a lot of
free time.

So I spent time in the little army library and there was this book ' Zen und
die Kunst ein Motorrad zu warten '. ' Ah, interesting '. I took it from the
shelf. It said (of course in German) a how to do your life guideline. ' One
of these trips. Mind and soul catchers. ' But I had a look anyway because it
said ' motorcycle maintenance ' in the title. But then (this is always me
translating and collecting from the past. I do not have the ZAMM here with
me) in the introduction I read that this book does not deal directly neither
with Zen nor with Motorcycle Maintenance.

 ' What is this about then ? '.

The poem on the first page:

' Was aber gut ist, Phaidros und was nicht, m¸ssen wir danach erst andere
fragen '

This was the moment something woke up in me. Something I forgot in school.
Interest but deeper than just interest. I opened my senses and had a real
close look.

' This guy is travelling on a motorcycle. He is saying something about good
pacemaking with the emphasis on 'good' not on 'pacemaking'. '

What is he talking about ? - The words dug deeper - or I dug deeper with new
tools. Deeper into my own feeling of ' not belonging here ' , into '
something is wrong, but I can not put my finger on it'.

 I read the book and sat in my truck and sometimes found me even weeping.
One day a sergeant came along and told me that I should descale the truck.
This would have taken a year or so, but I was willing. I started with the
tow bar. After six hours or so the tow bar was radiating. The serge came
back - had a look - said: ' This is good so. ' and never showed up again.

I must go now.

Thank You for being around,

MOQ.org - http://www.moq.org



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat Aug 17 2002 - 16:03:28 BST