I had my first bicycle ride of the season. Yesterday was a spectacular day here in Chicago. I think the temp got up to at least 70 F. The sun was shining, the sky was blue. What’s not to love? I spent the morning answering some emails and then tuned up my bicycle. The chain was rather gunky and there was still mud splatter from my last ride. Cleaning the bike was something of a meditation for me. It focuses me on what is right in front of me and calls me to pay attention to the way each piece works and is part of the whole. Yes, it’s messy (my fingers are still stained with grease) but it is also a preparation for the supreme joy of riding. I met up with a friend of mine, threw the bike on the car rack and took off for a forest preserve. It was beautiful. Families were out in the park, people running, biking, strolling, and playing ball. I didn’t have my bike computer (odometer) on so I was blissfully unconscious of time and clocking miles.
Riding my bike also reminded me of a lecture I was at on Friday. It was given by the renown Scripture scholar N.T. Wright. He was talking about the notion of time and how time is like a bicycle wheel—it is cyclical (because it repeats itself like a wheel spinning around an axle) but it is also linear (because as the wheel spins it is also moving the bike forward along a line). Fascinating. Such an understanding of time was not a new concept to me, but the image of a bicycle wheel to explain it was new to me. I am often a visual thinker–I do better when I can picture concepts in my mind. This image has stuck with me. Now when I am out riding my bike I can meditate on how I am a part of time!
"She wrote the way she lived: on the fly, without retrospect, always on the way, climbing higher."
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Kerry 03.26.07 at 7:14 am
You know something? I think that this post really speaks to the question about doing and being that was an earlier topic. Whatever happened on the bike, both in cleaning and riding it, seems to have been a doing that allowed being (which is one of the reasons I’m not sure a hard and fast distinction between the two is wise): single-minded attention to the task at hand, unawareness of time and the goal-orientation that prompt us into time-awareness, joy, playfulness.
Mike H. 03.31.07 at 10:31 pm
There is something about bicycling that I have found to be the time I spend thinking about the deepest things but in the lightest way. I am not sure what it is but the ability to go fast, slow. The bicycle is a real extension of me…kind of like a pair of shoes. This does not mean that I don’t drive cars which I do. The bicycle is one of the few machines today that you can look at it and see and know what each component does. I don’t like to clean most things but I do like to clean my bike. I only get to ride a few hours a week but they are some of the best hours.
I have met people who have used bicycling as a type of therapy. One was a woman who had lost both children from disease.
Sister Julie 04.01.07 at 9:03 am
Kerry — excellent point. I hadn’t thought of that when I was writing about cycling.
Mike — I totally agree with you and couldn’t have put it better myself. I’m not the most immaculate when it comes to cleaning. Organizing yes, but cleaning no. But I love taking care of my bike and am meticulous about its care. Right now my bike is in parts so that I can clean the cassette. I’m hoping to get things back together so I can enjoy the sliver of sunshine that is squeaking through!