THE CHILEANVENTURES – The Cryptovan is ready – Everyday learning is a path to happiness

We have been rather busy lately, together with @cryptowife, in preparing a 1993 Fiat Fiorino for a one-month-travel from Valparaiso to the North of Chile. We spent many hours and many pesos, but we can now finally hit the road with this little van that allows two persons to sleep on it.
This post is to remind how learning something new, possibly every day, provides possibly the longest lasting source of happiness. In the last three weeks we have been learning a whole bunch of stuff we used to ignore. We were also able to manage some minor works of repair. And now, with this little house on wheels, we are definitely happier than before :-)

How we managed the first start

The Fiorino hadn’t been used for two years and was left under the sun, covered by dust. Imagine it with flat tires and rusty body: that’s how depressed it looked like. The first problem we had to solve was: how could we start the engine on. We found an electrician to charge the battery, but still nothing happened. So we asked a mechanic and we were told that the fuel pump wasn’t working. We called back the electrician who worked a couple of hours without managing to tell us nothing good, but to change the whole pump. We already felt discouraged after a couple of days of contracting people and spending money pointlessly. We doubted whether we could start our road trip.
One day, then, we decided to cope with the situation ourselves. Did I already mention that me and my wife share what I call a “I can do pretty much everything” mindset? Todo lo puedo en Christo que me fortalece: that’s actually our mantra – though I should rather say pray. That’s the mindset that allowed us to save that almost dead baby bird, Lucio, that has joined our family for almost a month and few days ago decided to leave for an independent life: we’ll miss you, Lucio, but we know this is the best for you.
Todo lo puedo en Christo que me fortalece. That morning we prayed God to gave us the knowledge we needed. If you believe that God knows everything and can do everything, as is written on the Bible, and you also steer your life tirelessly to be in tune with the Creator’s will, why not asking Him to help you with your broken car?
That’s what we did and how we succeed in turning the engine on. To do so, we had to isolate the cable of the fuel pump, change the position of a relay and fill the tank with more fuel.
Vruuuuum. The engine started. That allowed us to bring the Fiorino to another electrician who worked on the alternator, to a mechanic who repaired the brakes and the axial arms, to a man in Valparaiso who sell second-hand tires. We managed to repair the lights ourselves and then we went through the revision tecnica and later pay the insurance and the permiso de circulacion

Problem-solving and time

During those weeks spent in repairing the van l I often thought at The Road Less Traveled, a book by Scott Peck that, if you haven’t yet, I strongly recommend you to read. In this book there is a passage that describes perfectly what I felt and thought many many times.

At the age of thirthy-seven I learned how to fix things. Prior to that time almost any of my attempts to make minor plumbing repairs, mend toys or assemble boxed forniture according to the accompanying hieroglyphical instruction sheet ended in confusion, failure and frustration. Despite having managed to make it through medical school and support a family as a more or less successful executive and psychiatrist, I considered myself to be a mechanical idiot. I was convinced I was deficient in some gene, or by curse of nature lacking some mystical quality responsible for mechanical ability. Then one day at the end of my thirty-seventh year, while taking a spring Sunday walk, I happened upon a neighbor in the process of repairing a lawn mower. After greeting him I remarked, “Boy, I sure admire you. I’ve never been able to fix those kind of things or do anything like that.” My neighbor, without a moment’s hesitation, shot back, “That’s because you don’t take the time.” I resumed my walk, somehow disquieted by the gurulike simplicity, spontaneity and definitiveness of his response. “You don’t suppose he could be right, do you?” I asked myself. Somehow it registered, and the next time the opportunity presented itself to make a minor repair I was able to remind myself to take my time. The parking brake was stuck on a patient’s car, and she knew that there was something one could do under the dashboard to release it, but she didn’t know what. I lay down on the floor below the front seat of her car. Then I took the time to look at the situation. I looked for several minutes. At first all I saw was a confusing jumble of wires and tubes and rods, whose meaning I did not know. But gradually, in no hurry, I was able to focus my sight on the brake apparatus and trace its course. And then it became clear to me that there was a little latch preventing the brake from being released. I slowly studied this latch until it became clear to me that if I were to push it upward with the tip of my finger it would move easily and would release the brake. And so I did this. One single motion, one ounce of pressure from a fingertip, and the problem was solved. I was a master mechanic!
Actually, I don’t begin to have the knowledge or the time to gain that knowledge to be able to fix most mechanical failures, given the fact that I choose to concentrate my time on nonmechanical matters. So I still usually go running to the nearest repairman. But I know that this is a choice I make, and I am not cursed or genetically defective or otherwise incapacitated or impotent. And I know that I and anyone else who is not mentally defective can solve any problem if we are willing to take the time.

It follows, in Scott Peck’s lines, that “many people do not take the time necessary to solve many of life’s intellectual, social or spiritual problems, just as I did not take the time to solve mechanical problems”. This is the pattern that leads many people, in front of a problem, to throw their hands up and proclaim “It’s beyond me”.
"And this is precisely the way that so many of us approach other dilemmas of day-to-day living."
Life seldom offers us problems beyond our capacity to solve: we often don’t take enough time to study a solution, though.

Conclusion

This morning we left home with the Fiorino. I’m now writing on it, in front of the Pacific Ocean, in the bay of Horcòn, nearly 70 km north of Valparaiso. We had some problem on the road as a a strange, loud noise started – it should be something related to the clutch. But we are now here, in front of the sea, with our van fully furnished to live for a few days: we have to sleep, to eat and to work – my pc and the tools for artisan work. We’ll probably need to go back home soon for few days, and then we will be free to travel. I’ll keep you posted on the following Chileanventures.

P.S. Last week The Economist wrote an article on the importance of life-long learning in the era of Artificial Intelligence.

Hasta pronto!