Last year getting bike in box from bus to ferry at Cozumel.

While I pack as little as possible when I travel, knowing that what I might not bring will probably be available where I am heading, my bicycle is a different matter. If I am going to be some place for a length of time, it goes where I go. But as I like to say, a bike is a vehicle well designed to carry people, but not well designed to be carried by people. So I look for the best bag or box or whatever—something big enough to put the bike in but small enough to be somewhat manageable. This means that when bike and box must go together, creatively using local transport for bike transport. On the other hand, if the travel is the beginning of a trip, it has to be something that can be discarded at the destination. Which raises the question of what to do when leaving someplace with an item that airlines require to be somewhat disassembled and secured in an appropriate box or bag, when the required container is almost never available at the airport itself.

All of this is to say that when preparing for Merida a week ago I debated about leaving fenders on my bike—a truly trivial debate. Fenders weigh next to nothing but they do take up space, make the machine more difficult to disassemble, and can be broken. Why, I thought, when I am going to a place that will be near 100 degrees many days, would I have any need for something the only use of which is to prevent dirty water from soaking one’s backside when it rains…

In the end, I did not have to compromise size for convenience, as a very kind employee of Continental Airlines (non-solicited plug) at the Greensboro Airport left his post and fifteen minutes later emerged with two, not one but two, nice new cardboard boxes especially designed for bicycles on airlines. They are very large and accommodate a bike with almost no disassembling at all—a real treasure and at no charge to me.



Well, today I realized why leaving fenders at home would not have been a good idea. I headed out on a little exercise ride, it clouded up, and it rained. I should have remembered that despite the heat, or rather because of the heat, afternoon rains are a part of the world here. They are not unpleasant because the temperature is still in the 80’s and the rain itself is warm, but they could be if one were subjected to a constant stream of muddy warm water constantly spewing off rotating tires onto chin and back and other body parts for a period of time. So riding in the rain, on uncrowded byways past old haciendas and fields of brush, was and I am certain will be just fine because I brought my fenders.

However, the experience did cause me to reflect on Ireland, and the different experiences we can have in different places. Last summer Nancy and I had a wonderful two months with wonderful people in Dublin—and it rained every day. It was some kind of century record for rain in Ireland, which is saying something. And the strange thing is that while I chose to get out and cycle almost every day, I never really got wet. The rain just seemed to pause and the sun often broke through the clouds as I headed onto the road. In short, I realized that I would not really have needed fenders in rainy Ireland, whereas it is very nice to have them in hot and sunny Yucatan.

And what did this cause me to ponder? The unexpected things that come into our lives. Preparing for things that by all rights should happen but do not. And not being prepared for things that by all rights should not happen but do. And especially, but not uniquely, as we travel. The point is that if we think we are or even can be in control, we are very wrong. If we think we are prepared for any contingency, we are very wrong. One of the truths of life is that we are not in control, and that the unexpected happens—both good and bad.



I guess in that reality there are two lessons. One is to not get too worried when what we think should happen or have prepared for doesn’t come about. The other is to rejoice in the fact that God’s hand is in everything. This is not a fatalistic presence but a personal and powerful one. As Paul wrote in Romans 8:28, Ahora bien, sabemos que Dios dispone todas las cosas para el bien de quienes lo aman, los que han sido llamados de acuerdo con su propósito. (I am in Mexico!...But for English speakers, We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose.)

Changing worlds, changing lives, plans that have to be altered, disappointments, serendipities, at home with the most familiar or far away in a different culture—in all times and places God is present and at work—for good in and through those who love him…