Sharing space

This afternoon a package arrived for me. It has clearly seen a bit of travel.



Luckily the things inside were ok. Everything had been rifled through, the cards had been opened. I respect the fact that India has to worry about terrorism, especially at a secure institute like TIFR, but was still a little miffed to see that someone had felt it necessary to see what messages my family and friends were sending me.

But I really only thought of that after the fact. I was really happy to get this package from Jill. We met on a .83 ride one year today. So when a box from her shows up in my office this afternoon it was a great bit of serendipity.

When our friends Michael and Kate asked Jill and I how we met, she replied, "Bikes." I could elaborate some, but it also works just to leave it at that.

The last year has been one of the most interesting and eventful years of my life, and I'm glad to have had such a person to share it with. Her enthusiasm and desire to explore the world is a rare gift, her compassion is deep, she is smart, funny and can be tough as nails when need arises. She has created her life rather than let things carry her along. Her profession, making maps and collecting information for the emergency response and restoration division of NOAA, applies her compassion, competence and intelligence to help heal the environment and mitigate the damage that our society is doing to our world. One of their next projects will be this one.

It is difficult, being so far away from each other. But the rise of the internet has made these distances not such an insurmountable obstacle as they once were. We communicate daily, by email, chat, and phone calls by VOIP. And in the real world, she is coming to visit in a couple of months, and we will take a month to go out and explore some corners of this sub-continent of a country.

We're looking forward to it.

As to what's happening in the meantime, I've spent most of the last week laying low, reading and thinking about math. I figured a few things out that will be useful in the long run, but for the time being are actually steps backwards in what I thought I understood. But this is how doing mathematics works.

I've also been reading a little bit about the shared space design philosophy. This article in Salon is an interesting intro. The idea is that regualting traffic flow doesn't necessarily work better than anarchy, and in fact, the latter may be the way to go because it gives more freedom for the individuals who comprise traffic to use their collective intelligence. There is a bit of that going on here, and in most crowded developing countries, where there are just too many people using the streets in too many ways to have it completely organized. When I am out riding, there are signals and such, but they are treated as safety signals. They tell you when it is probably safe to go and when it probably is not. The pedestrians and smaller vehicles like motorcycles and bicycles filter through when traffic is stopped, and make room when it is not. It is interesting to watch and to be part of.

The rains have ended and the heat has settled in. The evidence is not conclusive, but it is possible that the term "Indian Summer" refers to this time of year in India. For the past couple of days, it hasn't been as bad, but during the beginning of the week, I wasn't been able to do much in the afternoon that seemed at all productive besides nap.