After three weeks of riding each day until dark, packing, loading, strapping, and cornering, I spent three relaxed days in San Francisco. The contrast between the adrenaline rush of different-town-each-night is stark. The past few days made me realize how exhausted I am and how intense was the ride across the country. All of a sudden I notice little aches and sore muscles that have been waiting to catch my attention. It feels like the motorcycle is in the same state, finally showing some darker shade of oil on the dipstick. It’s good to take a short break and rest.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending almost two hours speaking with Dr. Phil Zimbardo – a living legend and one of the people who’s had the most dramatic effect on the modern science of psychology. Phil is best known for the Stanford Prison Experiment and for his work on good and evil. In the past few years he has been focused on defining the qualities that make heroism, and finding ways to teach the skill of becoming an everyday hero to children. I will be editing some video material from our conversation and will post it during the next few days. Next week I will be meeting with Byron Katie, Dave Stewart, Glen Ballard, Sonja Lyuobmirsky, Cloe Madanes, and Deepak Chopra. A pretty busy week. In between, I will be attending a conference in Stanford University, led by the Dalai Lama, on “Scientific Explorations of Compassion and altruism”. And finally, in nine days, I will be back home, in the arms of me family.
Earlier today, I rode down the Pacific Coast Highway from San Francisco to Palo Alto, indulging in the salty smell of the air and the vast blue to my right, a constant reminder that I am indeed on the west coast. I stopped in Pacifica to take some pictures. Hope you like them.
