In the summer of 2006 I spent over a month traveling alone across China by motorcycle. My only traveling companion was a book by Ted Simon called "Jupiter's Travels." Simon traveled around the world alone by motorcycle long before the adventure bikers of today set out to do the same. He wrote of his adventures and how he acquired his name. He was told by a friend, "You have a determined soul. This is reflected in your mind. You are Jupiter..." he said.
To which Simon thought "Why not? I like the sound of that."
The mission of my trip was very much the same as Ted Simon's: "The goal was comprehension, and the only way to comprehend the world was by making myself vulnerable to it so that I could change me. The challenge was to lay myself open to everybody and everything that came my way. The prize was to change and grow big enough to feel one with the whole world."
It surprised me to discover that this sense of rightness does not appear naturally in people, even though they live in the heart of nature," Simon wrote. To which I agree. It was not my environs that needed to change but me. How do we change?
This isn't just a motorcycle business to me; its my attempt to help bring about the change in ourselves we all seek--that feeling of one with the world. Traveling helps me do that--motorcycling brings me closer to the heart of nature both within myself and I find with others.
So, the way I see it, in a way we are all Jupiter if we want to be. Or as another great traveler once wrote: "On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur, l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux." - One can see rightly only with the heart, what is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Chris Miles
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