The simple things
I am fully aware that I am guilty of becoming very absorbed in decisions that really have little impact the quality of my life. I sometimes have spent hours labouring over a small detail that would probably make my life 0.00005% better. It’s the rate of diminishing returns, and for some reason I manage to play myself into a corner where I become guilty of it. I managed to justify these hours that have seemingly inconsequential differences on the way I experience my life. I attribute a lot of my realisations to a combination of living out of a suitcase, as well as living in a T3 city in China.
Yesterday, I got my bicycle fixed. In Australia, I have a car. In Shijiazhuang, I have what could be the cruddiest bike I could ever have. The front brakes are non-functional, which might have something to do with the severed break wire. The base of my frontbasket has been violently dismembered. The paint has decayed and peeled. The Australian police would have it ripped off the road - not only does it not have a bell, but it has no mirror. But here, it is perfect. I love it. Although I have only had it for two weeks, I treat it with love and respect, and having such a dependable asset can be a huge deal. The fact that it looks appalling could well be its greatest asset - in amongst the huge population of bikes within the city, a pretty two-wheeler stands out as a target for thieves. A beaten bike is just a part of the pack.
A couple of days ago, a terrible thing happened to my bike - the back tire completely gave in. It was flat. I managed to find a bike vendor who operates on the side of the road, and in my nearly-non-existent (but growing) Mandarin, managed to get my tire pumped up. The morning after, it was flat again. “So great,” I thought. I had a puncture. I needed to get the tire fixed. Judging from the state of my bicycle, I presumed that a simple tire repair would probably not do - it look so old that to replace the inner tube would have been the simplest option.
So yesterday, I set the challenge of getting my bicycle restored. When living in a country where you don’t speak the native tongue, it’s the simple things that can be exceptionally challenging. Sure I can have basic conversation with people, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how to go about explaining to a bike vendor that I needed to get my inner tire replaced. Nevertheless, I prepared a small dialogue in preparation. In Australia, it would have been such a subconscious effort it would be a no-brainer. Here, it was the most stressful thing all day.
Despite having prepared a small dialogue in order to help, it turns out that one of my fellow students had the same issue with his front tire. He was much more fluent in Mandarin than myself, and made no issue whatsoever of explaining what happened to the vendor. We went and got coffee, and within an hour it was fixed. Just like that, my bicycle had gone from almost unusable to my most useful possession once again.
It’s in the absence of material possessions that you value the simple things. I fully admit that I am not in the absence of material possessions. I think that I pack exceptionally heavily as a traveller, which I convince myself is a necessity for my work. But that said, my life right now has been distilled into 30-odd kilograms. For me having my bicycle repaired meant the world to me. I can only imagine for many people around the world, how things even simpler than a bicycle repair would be even more exciting. I think it’s important for me to stop falling for the law of diminishing returns, and start focusing on the things that really do make a difference.

