Motorcycle Dance

Not every trip has a destination. Most of mine do. I climb on my bike, Monday through Friday morning, and ride to work. Not many cars in the morning, lots more in the evening. There's a certain rhythm to the traffic I ride in. I stay away from the freeways unless I have little choice. Just a long trip here an there requires it. Perhaps it's just my impatience that makes me not want to spend half of a day in my pursuit of keeping to the side roads, the surface streets, when a freeway or two can be done in an hour. I don't like the world to fly by so quickly, but LA is a very sprawled out place. I have family that live in Orange county, but I live in the San Fernando valley. We might as well be in different countries. I work at a hospital. They're puzzled by motorcycles. I'm not sure how it compares to the rest of the world, but in this country there's a strong aversion to risk. Maybe it's because we're a wealthy country. And healthcare workers are the cautious of the cautious. They've seen the emergency room visits. It's become a religion for some. Their god is safety, and the great trickster, satan, is risk. No defences from me, though, about motorcycles. They are more dangerous than cars. More dangerous by a good amount. One mistake can end your life. In a car, one mistake will more likely mean an accident that you probably walk away from. But I climb on mine every Monday through Friday morning, and I ride to work. I'm not that young. Maybe if I had a wife, kids, a mortgage, I'd think differently. But I don't. And I've chosen a safe route in a lot of ways, too many ways, through most of my life. I may die, or worse, get maimed by this thing I do - there's a better chance of it than if I just kept inside the four walls of a car - but I don't. Maybe it's as simple as we each choose our areas of risk. Or maybe a time is coming when we'll really need to risk something, something worth risking, and we won't know how. Who knows. Who can say? Each generation does their thing, struggles with both common and specific struggles to their time. I'll climb on my bike, and dance the dance put before me. Maybe that's all I know for today.