The Hero’s Reward: Baja Motorcycle Adventure (Part 7 of 7)
Published July 27, 2021 · 11:25 · 81,618 views
About This Video
The finale of the seven-part Baja series. Footage from the summer of 2006. Ryan Berman's Return on Courage provides the business-world counterpoint to Joseph Campbell: courage as an investment with measurable returns. The two frameworks layer over the Baja footage to produce a conclusion that's simultaneously personal narrative and mythological structure.
"Why we do it": the description's three words. The question the entire series has been building toward, and Van's answer is structural rather than emotional. We do it because the journey produces a version of yourself that couldn't have existed without the departure, the ordeal, and the return. The Baja Peninsula was never the destination; it was the mechanism. Twelve years of footage, seven episodes. The reward is the person who came back.
Transcript
so okay where you going we're going to baja all right dude good two weeks have fun [Applause] [Applause]
talk to me about your morning what you have to do this morning i had to wake up i had to move the trailer i had to unload the bike
i had to get coffee get coffee i had to get insurance with ryan berman i had to eat breakfast
and i had to take and now uh it's time to go oh and hold it hyper steady that's what you should concentrate on all right
and then we're now recording yeah and this is me if you want to like speak
into it the the microphone is on the back of this screen okay you can turn it so now just for the record i'm now recording your camera yeah
recording me yes [Music] got it got it now i'm not recording your camera recording me okay showtime let's go
in the summer of 2006 i was riding a big bmw r1150r
in the rain in new hampshire when i got a flat a flat on a motorcycle in the rain
is a grade c emergency but miraculously i was within riding distance of a motorcycle shop
when i noticed the tire was getting low now because of the horrible new england weather a new hampshire motorcycle shop can only
stay open about four or five months a year nobody really rides past october up there
so the guys who owned the shop they'd go on these motorcycle adventures all over the world
during the off season when they couldn't keep the shop open so i told one of the owners that my
first motorcycle adventure had been in austria and then i'd ridden through the alps of switzerland and
italy to which the owner replied the alps are nice so i asked him
okay well what's your favorite what's the best place you've been and without hesitation
he just said baja then he motioned to a little room in the back of the shop
a little gallery filled with photos from multiple motorcycle trips down the
baja peninsula [Music] and that's how this dream was born this baja dream okay i'm actually not gonna get to see him
okay i'll stop at the stop sign here stop recording right now [Music] i have in my soul a very childlike and deep love of mexico
i love it so much i especially love traveling through mexico overland as opposed to flying to some final
destination this was my first overland trip now we're led to believe mostly because of
hollywood movies and documentaries that mexico is nothing but cartels and murder
but when we're drawn to things when i'm drawn to something or to a place wow
i've just got to go i don't need to know why i just have to go i basically
spent my life squirreling resources and spending them on adventure
and the best adventures are always a little a little scary
i just discovered this good thing i pulled over well it's a good thing i pulled over that's gasoline in there
i was supposed to use these but i was lazy and used these so i had to use three times as many of these which took as long as it would
have taken to use the proper thing always use the right tool
five years after this mexico adventure on another mexican adventure i read this book called
the hero with a thousand faces this is where the term the hero's journey comes from
and the hero's journey is a process that each of us is invited into
in order to reach our potential all cultures all human cultures have stories that follow the phases of the hero's journey
navajo legends star wars african or polynesian folk tales harry potter
maverick in top gun all of our myths have the same basic journey for the hero
[Music] in hollywood they call it the formula i look at the hero's journey as an itinerary for adventure
adventures have certain meaningful events in common but the point
of adventure is that it's an opportunity to test your potential or maybe rise to
your potential or maybe rise to near your potential
[Music] this is heaven man i got up to 60 on this stuff scary though my rack came unbolted and unbolted right here
[Music] i'm the only one here and there's soldiers and hummers and machine guns like on the road on the way in it's just they're right there
they're here to protect us [Music] this guy's younger than me [Music] i can't believe this the guys who told me about baja the first guys who ever told me about baja are these guys i went to their shop and got a flat tire fixed in the rain
once and the end of the adventure is called the ultimate boon and that's when you return from your adventure with something that will benefit your
people boon means thing that is helpful here we go
the spirited man feels compelled to embark on a hero's journey however small it may seem to others
and when he does it right he experiences the phases of the hero's journey
in pursuit of his best self two years after this in 2011
neve and i along with our friend john returned to baja and rode the entire peninsula mostly
off-road to attend ryan berman's wedding ryan you remember filmed me crossing the
border in 2009 he also wrote this book a few weeks ago in 2021 neve and i took our little kids on a [Music]
trip so that we may begin to cultivate within them
the essential human penchant for adventure so that these kids may one day god willing deliver unto their people the ultimate [Music] boon [Music] you
Products & Tools Mentioned
- BMW R1150R mentions — Van's motorcycle for the Baja trip
People Referenced
Joseph Campbell, Ryan Berman
Books Mentioned
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces
- Return on Courage