What bicycling has taught me
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When I’m on my bicycle I get a lot of time to myself to think about “things”. Many of these “things” is my own self-reflection on my feelings and my state of mind. More than once, I found myself blissfully happy. Even when I’m tired and exhausted, I am able to enjoy the silence while I pedal down a quiet dark road home. I am at peace with myself when I’m on my bike. I am happy that I consciously made this decision to not burn fossil fuel to propel myself home from whatever short-sighted event that I may have been attending. I don’t need gasoline to take me home. I can do it on my own free will and burn calories not oil in the process. It is up to my body and myself to navigate up the last hill towards home.
Bicycling has taught me to be more patient. Riding a bicycle to places gave me a reason to plan and structure my day but ironically at the same time, riding the bicycle doesn’t require me to structure my day. I know that if I leave 1 hour before the start time of work I would have plenty of time to coast into work and not break a sweat. I take my time and enjoy the environment around me. I can hear, smell, and feel every cough, breeze, and sprinkle. The concept of being in traffic has been removed from my life. I am no longer bounded by the inconsistencies of getting to a place either 20 minutes or 1 hour just because of a car accident or road construction. I am free from the vast waste of land called parking lots or parking structures which is erected to help house our cars. I don’t have to pay the parking tax either at these wasteland or leaving my car with a complete stranger eager to take my car for a quick spin around the block while he’s digging for loose change. I am no longer mad when a person cuts me off or speeds off in front of me. Why are they in such a rush? Why can’t they just slow down to listen, hear, and smell the things I’m experiencing? That’s right. They’re in a car with their noise insulated windows and cabins bumping the latest tunes on their thousand dollar stereo system. They are busy letting the rest of the world know how better they are because they’re driving a fast and powerful beast of a car. They scoff and laugh at me as they pass, but they don’t know how sorry I feel for them for they are the ones missing out in life. They don’t realize that by driving these monolithic SUVs they are just making things worse. People in their hybrids often think that they are doing something to help our problems when all they’ve done is reduced their consumption on gasoline. They still need gasoline to power their smug bug. They’re still occupying the same space as before on the roads and highways. We still have traffic. We still have accidents.
I remember day-dreaming in college about how cool it would be to commute by bicycle to work. Honestly, I never thought I would be the bicycle commuter let alone get back on a bike after I got into the working world. I’m living the dream! A true dream that I didn’t think was possible. My bicycle(s) changed my life again. It’s taught me that it’s never to late to try something different. I was able to learn how to work on my bikes in a matter of months. I am self-reliant and don’t need to pay a mechanic to service my bikes now. Even after 30+ years, I am able to pick this up with no problem. I am also paying this forward when I go help people with their bicycle problems over at the Bike Oven co-op. What’s a better way to make an impact on someone’s life than to help them get their bike up and running? Maybe they’ll have that chance to feel the way I feel. They have this opportunity to feel some of things I’m feeling. Maybe something they never felt before.
Whatever it is, whenever I am with other bicyclists, I see the same burn. The same drive I see in myself. However different we are I am able to connect with bicyclists just because I am one of them. I’m not talking about your weekend warriors in spandex and fluorescent jersey. I do train with those types but they are not as cool as the people who genuinely love bicycles not because it’s got the latest and hottest component but because the bicycle had a story behind it. Every bike has a story that is associated with it. I remember some of those stories. About someone picking it up from a yard sale and spray painting it. About someone who saw it lying on the street and decided to adapt it and rebuild it from the ground up. Some great stories behind how each other’s rig was pieced together and how long they’ve been riding their trusty steed is what I enjoy listening to.
I’ll have people telling me that I’m the one who’s crazy to go without a car. They tell me I’ll be missing out and that I can’t live without a car. They tell me that riding a bike fully loaded is silly. They make fun of my helmet. Bicycling has also taught me to be courageous and trust in something whole-heartedly to a point whenever I have naysayers telling me it won’t work, I don’t have self-doubt. I can confidently brush it off or better yet show them that it is possible to live a car-free life and still be happy with overwhelming amount of experience to share. The proof is in the pudding. I’ve never blogged as much I have for the past 2 months. I just have so much to share and the words are coming out much easier than ever before. I’m not the one missing out. I’m living it up and enjoying every minute of it.
Themocracy