Mt. Bike Now

The air is pregnant with humidity.  A Cabecar woman stands before me, head down, likely suspicious of why we are here.  A pile of organically-grown green bananas lays at her feet.  She tells us that she gets US $0.10 per kilo (2.2 lbs) of bananas when she sells them to middleman, her only current option, that comes on Mondays to the rise in the dirt road that sits a ten minute walk from where we parked.

We learn that her bananas go to Gerber, and are processed into organic baby food.

Her machete rests in the ground next to the bananas that she has cut from the trees on her farm.  Mosquitoes bite me and her.  We swat them away.

www.vagoscribe.com

Emergency is upon us.  Oil reserves have been tapped so that we are able to save some cash here, tricking us into spending some greenbacks there.  We open our wallets to find the same amount missing, bills not folded where air fills the void.  It’s the same difference, the paycheck amount never increasing, and the total paychecks handed out not increasing either.

It’s Obama’s fault.  It’s Bush’s fault.  It’s Clinton’s fault.  It’s Bush’s fault. It’s Reagan’s fault.

It’s your fault. It’s my fault.  We want more for less.  To get that, we have to pay.  Some of us end up paying more than others:

Land Mine Victim after playing with a “toy” he found, Denan, Ethiopia (formerly Somalia)

We put toys on and in our vehicles so that we can go out and enjoy a few hours of leisure time, burning irreplaceable fuels to arrive at the starting line so that we can compete against each other, some coming out winners and losers.  Or, we go to get away from our home lives and the office grind.  Maybe we do it to be healthy, to be out in nature, to connect with an inner something that we recognize as something bigger than ourselves but are not able to understand.  Perhaps it brings us an endorphin rush that has us feeling high.

Paying to Play

My costs will continue to be lower than those of other people.  I will continue to play, adding to their costs.  It’s my fault too.