Riding it Out

I'm sure everyone knows someone that they would refer to as a Cyclist. This is a very important distinction - these are the people who think that cars are a nuisance clogging up their roads, & they are downright dangerous (dangling modifier left to the reader to appropriate).

I've never been a cyclist. I've ridden my bike - often stupidly down narrow edges on the side of a fast open highway - but not to the point of being an enthusiast, rather as a dare-devil.

When I got a motorbike licence, things changed. The first thing you notice is that there's next-to-nothing between you & the road. Once you get over that, you realise that what every motorbike rider has told you is true - car drivers are out to kill you, & it's your task to determine which of them is most likely to succeed. Please only laugh if you ride on two wheels regularly.

I believe it comes down to this: car drivers have stepped outside of the real world when they step into their tonne-of-steel death machine.They no longer have control of their destiny, because they don't have a clue how a vehicle works, & therefore it must be someone else's fault if the brakes aren't applied quickly enough, or the vehicle is moving too fast. They couldn't possibly be in control of such a behemoth. It defies logic to believe that they have the nous to direct such advanced machinery's destiny. People abrogate all responsibility when faced with the use of a technology they do not understand.

Road rules don't apply. Every driver knows the rules, but the cars don't. It must be the car's fault that it drifted into the other lane, because the driver wanted it to go straight. That's a shame. The car might even get damaged if it does that again.

This is quite different from what goes through the mind of a rider - I must take that next corner at such-&-such a speed, tilting the bike to such-&-such angle at approximately such-&-such position within the lane - or else I will probably die.

Interestingly, I was putting these ideas together while I was walking - reminded of a Piers Anthony novel about Satan... That's what I do when I've got lots of time on my hands - go for long walks to do things that might take only a few minutes if I was driving. The thoughts that go through your head are along the lines of "What a lovely hot day - look, some shade to walk through!", "I wonder if I'll get to the next street in one change of lights or two?", "I wonder what time it is?"
These are the thoughts of someone on holidays, admittedly - someone who doesn't have to be somewhere right now & can't blame anyone else if they're not.

I was walking at my own pace. I was using my own legs. I had total responsibility for where I was, how fast I was going, where I was going to, how, & whether I could just stop for a second in the middle of the footpath to see what the next tune on my mp3 player might be.

Thoreau had it right a long time ago - being in complete control of your own destiny, & having responsibility for what you do, & how you do it, is truly liberating, from a spiritual point of view, even if it puts the onus for everything back on you. That, in itself, makes you re-evaluate everything to determine how much of it is actually necessary or useful, & how much of it is simply the guff that society expects of us with no return.

We've lost our way, my fellow bipeds. We've all become users of technology - drivers of cars - machines we don't understand & don't believe that we can control. That vehicle is a metaphor for what I will now laughing call "lifestyle". We need to get back on two wheels to understand the environment that we're whizzing through thoughtlessly otherwise, & then we need to get back on our own two feet & just enjoy the journey of life at a pace far more natural.