Kill the Commute

During this past week, I realized something: when I ride my bike to work, I'm not commuting.

If I wanted to commute, I'd buy some throwaway Japanese econobox and sit in the lifeless drudgery that is commuting.  Commuting destroys your soul and turns you into a spectator.  The world goes by while you sit there in your Corolla listening to Kenny Loggins.  Don't waste your life commuting and listening to Kenny Loggins.

When you're on a bike, you're riding.  Yes, I know that sounds painfully obvious but stick with me.  When you ride instead of commute, you become part of the surroundings and part of the world.  You're there experiencing things while others are cooped up in their boxes, heading from one climate-controlled area to another.

Earlier in the week, one of my coworkers said it was too cold to be riding.  Yes, I said, it was too cold to be riding but I'm doing it anyway.  Modern life is so controlled, so sanitary and so safe.  You have to break those chains and do something irrational and interesting once in awhile. I try to act irrational as much as I can, just because I can.

Get out of your econobox and get a bike.  Then you can turn your dull commute into an adventure and live a little. Put yourself in the wind, crack the throttle open and experience life.  Toss the Kenny Loggins CD at the minivan full of bratty kids and instead listen to the symphony coming from your exhausts.  Okay, I may getting carried away, but you get the picture.

Live, you only get one chance.