Mid-Life Rider

I keep asking the question, “Why do you ride?” not because there is an answer, but because the question is important to ask. Actually, it’s not really the riding part. It’s the part about how we respond to the urgings and sensations we get that we’re being over-stimulated, over-stuffed, over-looked, and over-a-barrel. Ultimately the answer to the question, “Why do you ride?” is the same as, “What am I doing?” Riding a motorcycle is just a place to work that out.

I’m reminded of this by a piece in the New York Times called “I Need a Virtual Break . . .” It’s about a guy who decides he needs to take a “secular” holiday from all his gizmos and gadgets.

The reason for this change was a natural and predictable back-breaking straw. Flying home from Europe a few months ago, I swiped a credit card through the slot of the in-seat phone, checked my e-mail and robbed myself of one of my two last sanctuaries.

At that point, the only other place I could escape was in my sleep. Yet I had developed the habit of leaving a laptop next to my bed so I could check my e-mail, last thing and first thing. I had learned how to turn my P.D.A. into a modem, the better to access the Web from my laptop when on a train. Of course I also used that P.D.A. in conventional ways, attending to it when it buzzed me.

In short, my name is Mark, and I’m a techno-addict. But after my airplane experience, I decided to do something about it. Thus began my “secular Sabbath” — a term I found floating around on blogs — a day a week where I would be free of screens, bells and beeps. An old-fashioned day not only of rest but of relief.

Count me guilty. I’m right now blogging when I could be riding (something I hope to remedy shortly). But it occurred to me while reading the article–in the newspaper vs. online I might add–that “taking a secular” break is exactly why I ride. I don’t listen to music. I don’t talk on the phone. It’s practically the only time I don’t attempt to multi-task. I just ride. And I need all of that I can get.

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Tags: Midlife-Rider, Motorcycle, Why we ride, why ride a motorcycle