Change of Gratitude + Transportation: Run 13 Miles to Rent a Car to Hike a Mountain Top in the Rainforest

I live and work at the Ann Wigmore Natural Health Institute in Puerto Rico.  It's been a month, and I'll be here for two or three more.  I find very similar patterns of the environment here and myself as I did when I worked at the Creative Health Institute, or CHI, in Michigan last summer: The energy can fluctuate rapidly!  While working at a living foods health institute, it is very easy to go from soaring energy to bitter exhaustion in a short amount of time at unsuspecting intervals.  For me, The soaring energy comes from the rich health and nutrition of living foods.  This helps support the long work hours.  The increase in energy often leads to feeling great, trying to do too much, and then over doing it.  I work a lot, I exercise a lot, I read a lot, I think a lot, I want to be awake a lot... Then I forget to sleep a lot and the exhaustion sets in.  Then I rest, recover, repeat.

While all of this takes place, the guests go through their own experience:  Many are here for the 2 week program where they learn the living foods lifestyle and eat a 100% raw living foods diet.  Many are also new to the lifestyle.  This means at some point their body will begin to detox significantly.  When you eat well- for us that means raw living foods that are densely nutritious and easily digestible- you allow your body to detox more rapidly and productively.

Your body always tries to detoxify itself, naturally.  Although you may consume 100% pure organic food with no pesticides, hormones, or toxins, you will still intake toxic substances from unavoidable sources such as the air you breathe, some tap water, etc.  And some may be choosing to use avoidable substances like unnatural hygiene products, make-up, etc.  Even if you have been eating a high living foods diet for sometime, you will continue to detox, perhaps significantly from time to time.  A few detox symptoms include fatigue, lightheadedness, and irritability.

As a staff member, the challenge is trying to prevent myself from the often inevitable:  When your own symptoms of exhaustion align with the guests detoxing experience.  An occasional scenario for me is not sleeping much, working an exhausting 8-9 hour shift, where, regardless of your hard work, a few guests or more will be unhappy because they've been fasting on the same energy soup for a few days.  

I do understand how the guests feel, but it may not make it any easier.  I did a similar 2 week detox with energy soup fasting at CHI last summer.  I couldn't palette or look at energy soup by the third day.  Over a long duration though, the alkalizing high greens diet will alter the pH of your body while altering your taste buds.  I typically crave energy soup now.  It's a nutritional craving instead of a junk food craving.  While it is very difficult for any of the guests to believe that, it is also difficult for me to process the perceived lack of gratitude.  (Note:  By the end of the 2 weeks, guests typically feel better, joyous, and are very grateful!)

Exhaustion + Perceived Lack of Gratitude = Frustration.  When this frustration starts to set in, it's difficult to process the minute favors and requests that are often asked of you.  Since I basically live next to the kitchen, in the same building, these requests also come in frequently when I'm "off the clock" as well.  With this frustration, I essentially forget how grateful I am to be here in good health in Puerto Rico.  And that is unfortunate.  At this point, it is important to get off the grounds of the institute and take a day trip if my work schedule aligns.  However, it is also difficult to get around Puerto Rico without a car.  Riding a bicycle is kind of scary because the roads are narrow and poor, the drivers are crazy and there are several accidents.

BEGIN AWESOME ADVENTURE + RENEWAL OF GRATITUDE:

I get off work Saturday night and go out with some of the guests to a bomba in the nearby town of Isabella.  One of the guests is Kimberly Snyder, author of The Beauty Detox Solution.  I had the pleasure to hang with Kim and get to know her a bit.  It's hardly been a year since I started making major lifestyle changes in terms of the food from which I make my body and the exercise from which I play with my body.  Since I'm still trying new things, it's reaffirming to see Kim, a nutritionist in high demand from Hollywood's top A-List talent- it seems I'm making pretty good decisions. 

I am grateful for the many interesting and inspiring guests like Kim that come to AWNHI.

At the bomba, Kim and I play pool at the bar.

I am grateful that the pool table only costs one quarter!  I've never seen billiards this cheap in the states.

The bomba is awesome!

I am grateful for the incredible drummers!  Truly amazing!

On the way home, Kim and I think of getting out and going to El Yunque rainforest which is about a 2.5-3 hour drive.  We need to rent a car.

It costs about $25-35 to rent a car for the day.  However, it's a $40 one-way taxi to get to the car rental.  $80 in cab fare to rent a $25 car.  It's a waste of money on principle.  The next day I suggest a plan:

I WILL RUN 13 MILES TO THE AIRPORT AND RENT THE CAR!  BOOM!

I go to bed later then planned, about 11pm.  I wake at 3am.  I put on my shoes, my headlamp.  I fill my water bottle.  I put my license, credit card, and $5 in my bottle hand strap.  I get on the road about 3:30 am and start running.

I run roads for a few miles.  I run down the beach for several miles.  I stop at a river entering the ocean.  I choose to have water instead of sand in my shoes.  I run the beach some more, shoes soaked.  I cross a second river.  I run on the boardwalk where I pass the occasional late night lovers, sobering up from the early night.  I run through a field.  I stop.  I pet a beautiful horse, tide to a tree, alone.  I say goodbye, step in some of its shit, and continue running.  No worries.  The shit will fall off in a few miles.  I run a few miles up steep hills.  Enter a storm.  It pours for 20-30 minutes.  I'm soaked.  I find minor shelter under a billboard.  It's almost 5:30am; the time of my reservation.  I call the car rental.  In Spanish, I tell them I'm 15 minutes late: The first time I really communicate my needs fully in Spanish.  It's a start.  I run past planes at the airport.  I reach my destination.  I get the car.  Freedom of feet.  Freedom of car.

6am - Alive + Awake after 13 mile run and shower.

I drive back.  I pickup Kim.  We take a shot of wheatgrass.  Off to El Yunque.  About an hour on the road I have a banana, papaya, chia seed, almond milk smoothie.  Kim has energy soup.  There's a brown-out of sorts and several traffic lights aren't working.  Free form traffic guidance.  We stop at a few fast food places on the way.  We certainly DON'T buy their food.  But we donate our own waste into their public restrooms.  We get to El Yunque in about 3 hours with traffic and after I pass the entrance road once.  The road maps and signage are poor at times.  We pick up a trail map, we drink fresh coconuts, eat oranges, and start to explore.

It's lush.  It's green.  It's vibrant.  The fresh air.  The soothing sound of waterfalls.  The cheerful sound of coqui frogs.  The chirps of birds, hidden in the private tree canopy.

I am grateful.

We hike to the top of El Yunque.  About 4 hours round trip, taking time for photos.  At the top, fog and clouds.  We wait to see if it will clear.  Not this time.  We hike back down to exit the park by 6pm.

On the way back, we stop in Old San Juan.  We explore the beautiful town.  We grab a coconut and I get a dark chocolate walnut snack.  We chat.  We head back, return the car, taxi back and return at midnight.  Long day!

HIGH-FIVE ADVENTURE!  HIGH-FIVE PUERTO RICO!  HIGH-FIVE GRATITUDE!

I forget all earlier said frustration.  I am grateful for my feet and where they have taken me.  I am grateful to rest and sleep in the next day.

© Marty Stano

Change in Wheels: The Bicycle Thief and The Crackhead

[My Schwinn Prelude road bike was stolen St. Paddy's day, Wednesday March 17th, 2010 from 413 Washtenaw, Ann Arbor.  It was locked to a porch and stolen sometime between 10pm and 2:30am.  If someone helps recover my bike, I'll buy you lunch and give you a gracious high-five!  It's blue and chrome, has a rack, a water bottle holder, and a few lights.  I think it's a 2008.]

When I was a kid, I attempted to ride my mountain bike across a long patch of ice at the park. I thought if I kept my handle bars and tires straight, I could glide across 20 ft of ice. And I was right! Well, I was right for about 3 seconds, after which my bike flew out from under me sending me to the ground with my head ricocheting off the ice. In that moment of blurred vision I did not decide to get a bike helmet, but rather that I would never ride a bike in icy or snowy conditions.

Now that I'm an older kid, I would like to ride my bike during winter but I’m not hardcore enough to sport the gloves, mask, and goggles. Not to mention a road bike doesn’t fair as well as a mountain bike…

Fortunately though, Ann Arbor was blessed this past week with a few beautiful sunny days as we transition to spring. During this time, I also transition my wheels: less driving my little car into town, finding parking, and paying for gas while more riding my bike, skateboard, rollerblades, and more exercise and energy.

It’s 8:30pm St. Paddy’s day and I’m cruising on my bicycle. It’s only the third time I’ve had my bike out this season. I’m heading over to a friend’s for a haircut. The wind blows through my long hair one last time. I arrive and lock my bike to her front porch. We have some beers and I get an unforgettable haircut (A post on that coming soon). It’s about 10pm and we head to the bars.

I hang with my friends, we drink, we be marry, and now it’s 2am and we’re out. I get back to my friends about 2:30am expecting to ride the 3 miles back to my house, which is much harder now, being mostly an uphill ride…

But it’s gone… my bike is gone… no bike… no lock… no damage to the steel handrail where it was locked… nothing…

I’m really pissed. My neighbor who runs a bike shop hooked me up with this new Schwinn Prelude in 2008. This is only the 3rd season I’ve had it. I’m even more frustrated because I only need the bike for a few more months. I was planning to give it to my brother-in-law when Kelly and I head out for our Alaska-to-Argentina road trip this summer.

My friend and I walk around the nearby neighborhoods in a hopeless search.

I’m angry. I consider ripping someone else’s bike off a rack and riding it home… I remember the end scene of The Bicycle Thief, an incredible Italian Neorealist film about a worker who gets a job during the depression but needs a bike. After selling some of his families belongings, he gets a bike only to be stolen before his first day of work. [Spoiler Alert] After a long desperate search for the thief, the protagonist resolves to stealing someone else’s bike. His attempt is unsuccessful and witnessed by his young son who cries as he watches the shame and moral breakdown of his father. I imagine the same young boy watching me and crying… I curse and reconsider.

I have blurred moral lines of right and wrong. Generally, I don’t mind pilfering something from a large company, like eating a bunch of bulk food at the 24 hour grocery store (yum!) or wearing a sweat shirt out of Wal-Mart on a cold day. A lot of large companies like Wal-Mart already screw several people over both discreetly and not. But I could never steal someone’s personal property because I know I would directly screw someone over. 

I meet Kelly at a pizza place about 3am and she gives me a ride home.

Being bike-less is so frustrating. I’m now currently dependent on a car, oil, and transportation that burns fossil fuels and not calories. I’ve taken my skateboard and rollerblades out a few times and although fun, they are not nearly as practical and as fast as a nice road bike.

Please keep an eye out for my bike. I’ve got an extra tan trench coat, sunglasses, and a magnifying glass if you want to help me play detective.

[The Bicycle Thief  is one of my favorite films.  Who would have known it would come back with new meaning to my life.  Coincidentally, it is screening this Monday, March 22nd at the Michigan Theater.  I'll probably go to the screening and cry.]

In other wheeled news, during February, I was shooting a short film in Detroit at Lafayette Coney Island when my car was broken into. It was parked across the street on Michigan Ave and we we’re filming a shot across the street. My car was only there for about 30 minutes when a man came out of a building across the street asked the crew if this was our car. “Someone just broke into it,” he said. I ran across the street in disbelief. None of us saw or heard anything, but sure enough, my back window was smashed. I had several bags in my car with stuff of little value. The perpetrator had pulled a large blue bag out of my car and carried it about 20 feet where they left it after realizing it was way too heavy and filled with electrical cords of little value.

So what was the net utility of that transaction for everyone involved?

Crackhead: Zero. Maybe a negative if they injured themselves in breaking the window. A large negative in the event they could be arrested.

Car: Negative. Broken window = $100 insurance deductible reimbursed by the production. Fixed in one day.

Me: Zero. Fortunately nothing was stolen from me. But it was somewhat negative to drive home on the freeway in the cold with the wind blowing in and vibrating my whole car. Also a logistical negative to get to the film set the next day and schedule to have the window fixed.

Total: Negative. A lose-lose situation. But what does a thief or crackhead know about economics and utilitarian philosophy? In this situation, it seems apparently little. So this past week I had my car windows tinted so that the in the future, someone doesn’t break into my car for a shoebox or some scratched CD-Rs.

A note to all thieves out there: I have very few things of value… perhaps a liberal arts education from University of Michigan… but you can’t really steal that… but that’d be cool though…