The bicycle
Just over the horizon, past a quiet stream, where the sky is cloudless and bright, is an endless bicycle trail. The trail encompasses flat fast roads and steep rocky inclines, gentle banking curves and sandy beaches, and city streets that become country lanes. This is your trail.
The trail awaits the bicycle, and the bicycle awaits the rider. Bicycle give us the ability to get almost anywhere, across a variety of terrain. Bicycles provide a significant return on our efforts: we travel pollution-free, we have unobstructed views of the world around us (but please wear your helmet), and we exercise heart, lungs, and muscles.
Imagine the bicycle in front of you. It might be a racing bike or a mountain bike. Perhaps a cruiser or a city bike. The bicycle might be a rental available to anyone or your personal precious beauty, built lovingly from the carbon fiber frame up. Perhaps it has a bell. So many different choices.
Now, imagine being the bicycle. Eager for the endless roads and trails, the hills and valleys. The joy of the tires spinning effortlessly. The feel of the wind over the metal of the frame. Every day an adventure, as long as the bicycle has one thing: the rider.
The rider is you. To ride requires many things, all happening at once. First, there must be balance. Without balance, the bicycle falls. With balance, like magic, the bicycle and rider stay upright. But only if there is momentum. The momentum comes from the effort of legs pushing pedals.1 Balance + momentum gets the bicycle moving, but intention tells the bicycle where to go. The bicycle requires active participation from the body and mind of the rider; yet once mastered, the riding is almost automatic.
Without rider, the bicycle is inert. Without bicycle, the rider is constrained. Together, they are alive.
How can we navigate in the world? How can we decide who we are? Why do we make the decisions we make? What do we know and what do we believe?
The wolf. The ghosts. The librarian. The bicycle.
Simple archetypes for thinking about the world. But not too simple. Idealized constructs that give us new lenses for seeing. Questions to ask ourselves.
Next time: Putting it into practice.
Let’s ignore electric bicycles here, much as we should do everywhere.