Re-Zen

Well, I started to re-read what I have been calling my favorite book of all time, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values". It's not particularly about the Zen religous beliefs, nor how to repair you motorcycle. It's been about 8 years since I last read it and much of it's content has long since faded from my memory. The second page contains a paragraph that only motorcycle riders can truly relate to. It goes something like this:

"You see things vacationing on a motorcycle in a way that is completely different from any other. In a car your always in a compartment, and because your're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame. On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming. That concrete whizzing by five inches below your foot is the real thing, the same stuff you walk on, it's right there, so blurred you can't focus on it, yet you can put your foot down and touch it anytime, and the whole thing, the whole experience, is never removed from immediate consciousness."

If you never ridden a motorcycle, you will argue that you have control of the "cage" and you are not passive. Well, I won't be able to argue with you and it doesn't really matter to me how you feel about it. What matters to me is the feelings and the thoughts that go through my head while on the bike. It is completely different then while in a "cage". I learn more about myself while riding than while doing anything else through the day.

"But riding a motorcyle isn't safe." Then you shouldn't ride one. Just don't preach to my how I shouldn't cuz they're not safe.