Do You Know What Saudade Means?

Sometimes when I am riding I start to be overwhelmed by a feeling of saudade. Now this is a word most are not familiar with. It’s rather difficult to explain. It’s a Portuguese word. It’s not nostalgia, it’s not sadness, it’s not longing, it’s not missing something, it’s not sorrow, it’s not a rememberance of days past, it’s not pain, it’s not pleasure, rather it is a mixture of all of the above and then some. There really is no word in English to describe it. One person put it as a pleasure that is lost, a pain that is welcome. Memories flood my mind when I am on the road. Even while I am doing 75 mph instantly in my mind I am transported back to some distant place that is so real and vivid it’s like I am actually there. I guess I have the world’s most vivid imagination and perhaps the world’s most vivid memories. I can close my eyes and I am there! Some call it a waking dream. Instantly I am taken back to someplace in the past and for a few moments I can relive it as if it’s happening right now. Little details jump out at me, things I have not remembered in years. Yet, for a few moments it’s as if I stepped into a time machine and was transported back to relive a certain moment in time. Sorta like my own personal time travel machine.

Highway hypnosis, you know how sometimes you wake up and discover you just traveled 10 miles but you don’t remember it? Your mind was somewhere else yet your conscious mind took care of things like the other cars, your speed and staying in your lane. It was automatic while you were in a distant land inside your head. That’s what I love about motorcycling. It transports you to somewhere else. Yes, you are riding with all the normal things you need to do to stay alive yet once you get up to speed and start to play some of your favorite tunes you are transported to another world. It’s like flying a biplane. If I had the money I would own a Stearman or a Travelair and spend my days traveling all over the country, Canada, Mexico and South America. Perhaps one day… In the meantime it’s motorcycles for me.

Did you ever see that Christopher Reeve movie where he is a Stearman pilot flying mail back in the 30’s? His boss hires out a passenger for him to fly along with the mail. The future of aviation his boss tells him! I love that movie. The cars, the planes, the locations, the free spirits of Christopher Reeve and Rosanna Arquette. Especially Rosanna Arquette!! In this movie she plays a real wildcat. Not content with what her rich, old money father wants for her life, she wants to go her own way. I can relate. If you ever get a chance, watch this movie. I think if I was born around 1905 or 1910 this is how I would have ended up. A Stearman pilot alongside Pancho Barnes doing things my parents would never approve of but those things satisfy my soul like no other. What satisfies your soul? What really, really satisfies your soul? Deep down, deep, deep down. What is it? Can you put a finger on it? Is it something that others expect of you or is it something buried so deep in you that you have never told a single soul? Something yearning to get out. Something that drives you mad because it has not come true yet.

I used to ask folks what they would do in their life if their room and board was taken care of. In other words, what would you spend your time doing if all your bills, rent and overhead was taken care of. I don’t remember a single one saying they would keep on doing what they were currently doing. They were trading their time for money doing some incredibly boring, soul sucking work. Very few people get to do what they love for a living. What is it you love to do? What is it you would do for 12 hours a day for the rest of your life? For free. What is it??? Think about it and think about how many years you have left on this rock.

Let me leave you with this quote. I think about it every day. Can you guess who said this?

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like, “If you live each day as if it were your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.”

It made an impression on me… and since then, for the past 33 years I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I’m about to do today.”

And whenever the answer has been, “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything: all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure… these things just fall away in the face of death… leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked; there is no reason not to follow your heart.

(Later in the speech…)

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new.

Right now, the new is you, but someday not to long from now you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your time is limited; so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.