Personalities

There are some interesting folks I came across in Louisiana whom I
hadn't written about, but whom I want to tell you about. One is Kevin,
a local who was cycling the other way on a rural road and stopped to
chat with me. Not your typical cyclist, he was riding along in jeans
and construction boots, though not being a fashion-conscious cyclist
myself, I didn't even notice these quirks until he pointed them out to
me. What I did notice from the getko war that he was pedaling while
smoking a cigarette. Now that's a skill that I saw many folks perform
in Japan, but it was the first I'd seen it in the US. A very friendly
guy, he told me that he's taken up cycling the roads of his beautiful
Louisiana countryside in an effort to improve hir life. It's helped
him quit doing the frightening drug meth, and together with AA, it's
giving him the motivation and structure he needs to lay off the
bottle. I guess smoking comes next, but it's really nice to see this
guy using healthy outdoor exercise ar a means to improve the person
that he is! Another friendly Louisianian I met is an older lady named
Paula, who said it's always been her dream to see the country like I'm
doing, but that her family wouldn't go for an adventure like that, and
that she is scared to go other than in a large group. When she asked
me what means I had to protect myself if threatened with crime, and I
responded that I carry only a cannister of pepper spray, she grew
concerned, and suggested that I go at my earliest convenience to
purchase a firearm, because that's what folks really need to protect
themselves in this crime-ridden country, and they're so easy to buy
and obtain a permit for. In some ways she's right, as anyone can
obtain a gun pretty easily, but I hold to my bleeding-heart liberal
values that, except for folks who use guns professionally and are
trained psychologically in using firearms with restraint, as policemen
are, I want this to be a gun-free society, so I should set an example
by not carrying one myself. Japan's got that right.