You've seen the tablecloth trick right? The one where someone walks up to a table fully furnished with a tablecloth and dinnerware and pulls the tablecloth off the table without destroying its contents. Inertia states that an object at rest will stay at rest unless another force acts on that object. The magic of the tablecloth trick is that even though you use a force to pull the tablecloth away, the other objects don't look like they move at all. With the recent rapid spread of Covid-19 it feels as if a state of rest is being forced on those who are in motion. As we ramped up for a life on the road in 2020 we were definitely gaining inertia. Recently we wrote the words "It's challenging to uproot your life and make all of the changes necessary to go from living a more traditional path to a nomadic lifestyle. It feels like it may take a while longer before we can actually drive away but we know that the real journey of growth has already begun."
When we wrote the words "a while longer before we can actually drive away," we weren't referencing Covid-19; we were referencing a list of things necessary to accomplish in order to be able to get on the road. The prep work for changing your whole lifestyle takes a surprising amount of effort and time. Things like preparing to sell a house, selling and donating many of our possessions, and transitioning to a stronger online presence for our businesses take lots of time. These are things that can still be accomplished by having to "stay in place" as mandated by many states trying to prevent the state of Covid-19. In many ways the "stay in place" prevents us from being able to escape these tasks! Is it the best time to sell a house or have a moving sale? NO, it is not. Covid-19 has definitely slowed down our inertia but we are not at a stand-still by any means.
The real magic of the tablecloth trick isn't that the objects don't move at all, it's that by pulling with a downward force and using a smooth tablecloth the friction between the tablecloth and the dishes is so small that the cloth slides out from underneath the objects without dragging them too much. The objects do jump and if there is water in the glass you can see it sway from side to side. There is no denying the change of state in the table, one minute it has a tablecloth and the next it is gone. The trick is always a crowd-pleaser and looks mighty impressive. Preparing for a life on the road feels a lot like the tablecloth trick, except what takes a split second to accomplish with the tablecloth instead takes a couple of years. The most important component of this trick is to have the right tablecloth. If the tablecloth is rough and rigid it will create lots of friction and the trick will fail. The tablecloth must be pulled in the right direction and be as smooth as possible.
We will try our best to adopt the motto: Don't resist, be the tablecloth.
Stay healthy and safe!
