The bicycle is the most civilized conveyance known to man. Other forms of transport grow daily more nightmarish. Only the bicycle remains pure in heart.
Iris Murdoch
Do it for the joy it brings...
Ani DiFranco
...lately the bike’s looking better and better as a primary mode of transportation...since, y’know, though boycotting, fining, and filing charges against British Petroleum are all well and good, it’s not like you’re gonna fill up your tank at the local sustainable free-trade organic gasoline co-op, instead...
...though, as a typical middle class resident of the Western world...green-conscious and countercultural or otherwise...and thereby responsible for a carbon footprint bigger than most third world villages...(even right now, typing this blog post onto my bright computer screen in a well lit room, Los Lobos blaring from i-pod speakers)...can’t say I feel all that comfortable posing on the eco-friendly high horse...or high bicycle...
...of course, there’s exercise...maintaining bodily health, keeping legs toned and muscular, belly somewhat under control...(some might say it'd be less an issue without the post-ride Ben & Jerry’s...but calories don’t count if you bike to the store)...
...then, if not for the yoga thing, my knees would likely have been blown out by now...and that’s not even mentioning detrimental effects of crouching over handlebars, gripping tightly (following, apparently, some atavistic instinct to bare teeth and brace for a fight in the final grueling miles of a ride)....(all in all, really, yoga’s highly complementary to biking, but the other way around, not so much)...(except that it’s exactly those deleterious aspects that helped lead me to yoga in the first place)...
...and, as written about here not long ago, biking, like walking, allows me to think more clearly, aiding in problem solving, helping to keep anxiety and depression at bay...spurring creativity, which, if I really feel like pushing the idea, leads to productivity, and thus, perhaps, to making some kind of contribution to culture and society at large...or something...
...and so, anyway, all kindsa people say good for you when they hear I get around mostly by bike...admiring my selfless forsaking of the gas guzzling comfort, speed, and convenience of internal combustion engines to propel myself where I need to go through grueling hard labor...concern for healthy body, mind, and ecology, apparently, trumping all else...
...and yet, I think, while whooshing along the Schuylkill river path on a bright morning, the lush green of Pennsylvania’s late spring reflected on the water, turtles sunning themselves on rocks, wind tickling whatever hair creeps out from under my helmet...whipping around curves, carefully dodging other bikes, pedestrians, and little families of geese...muscling up hills and floating back down, letting wind and gravity do the rest...faster than walking, but slow enough to absorb surroundings....would it be too hedonistic, amoral, and contrary to any decent work ethic to admit my primary motivation is still what it was when I was a kid cruising the neighborhood on my first three-speed...the sheer pleasure in it?...
