Bicycling and the End of the World
W e blame Sarah. First she got me to read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle and think about where all my food is coming from, and now over at Cafe Mama she is challenging everyone to Car Diet, and ack, I honestly don’t believe in diets, but, well let’s just call it Car Trip Counting?
The weather’s been — well, nice is stretching it, but not miserable? And I have the bicycle and the trailer. And I know a couple of mothers who always bicycle to Søren’s school from almost my neighborhood, one of whom has been organizing a challenge to families to walk, bike or use transit to get to school. It it seems like a challenge I could handle just to ride my bike every day picking him up from school.
And I have, not the day I drove to Woodlawn to spend time with a good friend, and not yesterday when I had to rush the boys to a dentist appointment before violin lessons, but I’ve done all picking up otherwise on my bicycle, pulling the boys in a trailer. Today, when I was responsible for drop-off I even did that on my bicycle.
The first day it was a little nerve-wracking, wondering if I had my timing right, or if I was going to be confronted with hideous traffic and rude drivers. The second day I was a bit sore. By the third day I was shocked to realize I was looking forward to the time to go pick up Søren as I never had before. That the bicycle made me feel freed, and aware, deliberate and conscious. Driving makes me unhappy, traffic brings up antagonism, I waver between boredom and tension. On the bicycle I feel powerful and strong. My relationship to my schedule changes, I am not rushing so I can come home and squeeze in a few minutes by myself to exercise. I am more aware of my neighborhood, watching the pace of new construction, the change in what’s blooming in my neighbors’ yards because I am going at a pace that allows observation.
And if you ask me about riding my bicycle, those are the things I am going to talk about. I might mention hating that I can spend more than $50 filling the minivan with gas, but I am probably not going to say anything about carbon footprints or emissions of any sort. It’s not that I am not capable of anxiety over the environment, it’s just that anxiety is not a place where I can afford to live. Using fear of rising ocean levels and famine, the disruption of our whole way of life as a motivator is like using hating your body as a way to eat healthy food and exercise, focussing on fear of not being lovable and the deprivation instead of on finding yourself feeling good because of the way you are living, it’s a way to end up feel helpless and hopeless.
I do keep evaluating my life, are the elements I need in balance — time to connect with others around me, time to think about what’s important to me, time caring for my children, time caring for myself. What makes me happy about pulling my bicycle out is that it fits with my ideas of what the happiest life is for me. So maybe I ought to send Sarah a quick thanks for inspiring me.
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“Using fear of rising ocean levels and famine, the disruption of our whole way of life as a motivator is like using hating your body as a way to eat healthy food and exercise, focussing on fear of not being lovable and the deprivation instead of on finding yourself feeling good because of the way you are living, it’s a way to end up feel helpless and hopeless.”
Amen, Mara. So true! Love this post.
you’re welcome! and more on the amen. i always believe in *doing* something, instead of *not doing* something. ride your bike. plant a garden. eat butter from a local farmer. talk to your neighbor, share a cherry tree, have someone over for coffee. get chickens! do it because it’s great, and it makes life so much better, and the environmental part’s a bonus.
i love the pace of biking too. i discover so many things on a bicycle, i’m always seeing new inspirations, gardens hidden behind things, chicken coops on side streets, amazing new ways to use cobb or enormous artichoke plants that look like dinosaur food.
if you think too much about the guilt inducements, you’ll spend your life in fear and nausea, and that’s not going to help anyone. sometimes i get lost in that for a bit and i have to drag myself out and DO something.
I think you’re totally missing the point of being more green. I mean, what’s the point if you’re not going to be self-righteous about it?! You’ve been living in Portland too long, man.
Of course, living in Portland would have the opposite effect on me. I’d probably buy a hummer, eat exclusively at fast food restaurants, get a boob job and live at the tanning salon just so that I could feel different. (I think that means I still have a lot of growing up to do.)
But fine. Go ahead. Be the change you want to see in the world. For myself, I plan to keep whining about crap and feeling helpless and hopeless.
You and cafe mama are inspiring me to bike more car less. I’m still working through the purchasing decisions, but hope to have the bike up and going next week! I’m thrilled. Thanks for the additional push.
Good for you Mara!
We all need to be more green nowdays and save some green too by cycling more!
With todays fuel costs it is becoming a more acceptable alternative to driving. (not to mention the health benefits!)
Let’s take that old bicycle out of the garage and tune it up, then get on the road!
BicyclesCentral.net
You really saved my skin with this inrfomatoin. Thanks!