Cycle of Fear

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on May 8, 2012 at 1:04pm

I related to this, considering I don't like carnival rides, bungee jumping or zipling:

Before I moved here, I imagined that I would be far too terrified ever to ride my bike in New York City. I am not what’s called a thrill-seeking personality: I am too scared to go on carnival rides and can only imagine that if I were ever to go ziplining, bungee jumping or skydiving I would turn instantly to stone with terror, a short-lived meteor. The actual danger of biking is incidental; it’s only an external condition that forcibly focuses my concentration, the same way that the violence of war can serve as an occasion for valor. If you’re anything like me, you probably spend the majority of your time either second-guessing the past or dreading the future, neither of which actually exists; having to navigate those teeming streets narrows the beam of my consciousness to the laser’s width of the instant I actually inhabit.

When I’m balanced on two thin wheels at 30 miles an hour, gauging distance, adjusting course, making hundreds of unconscious calculations every second, that idiot chatterbox in my head is kept too busy to get a word in. I’ve heard people say the same thing about rock-climbing: how it shrinks your universe to the half-inch of rock surface immediately in front of you, this crevice, that toehold. Biking is split-second fast and rock-climbing painstakingly slow, but both practices silence the noise of the mind and render self-consciousness blissfully impossible. You become the anonymous hero of that old story, Man versus the Universe. Your brain’s glad to finally have a real job to do, instead of all that trivial busywork. You are all action, no deliberation. You are forced, under pain of death, to quit all that silly ideation and pay attention. It’s meditation at gunpoint.

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Permalink Reply by dan brown on May 8, 2012 at 1:30pm

ditto julie. that was very well written. I have tried to explain urban cycling and the mental gymnastics involved and usually am met head on with glazed eyes. thanks for the excerpt....

 

DB

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Permalink Reply by JeffB on May 8, 2012 at 2:20pm

+1.  This struck a cord for me too.

Julie Hochstadter said:

I related to this...:

...

 If you’re anything like me, you probably spend the majority of your time either second-guessing the past or dreading the future, neither of which actually exists; having to navigate those teeming streets narrows the beam of my consciousness to the laser’s width of the instant I actually inhabit.

 

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Permalink Reply by spencewine on May 8, 2012 at 2:21pm

I'm new to Chainlink..my first post, actually. I really enjoyed the article and can relate. I've been bicycle commuting pretty solidly for the last 2 months, before it was much more sporadic. My bicycle commuting renaissance came as I moved to the West Town..... I use to live in Andersonville and would take the lakefront path to work and found it to be a rather boring ride, I know...beautiful lakefront, wide open path, etc....but since I moved to the west side and I have really enjoyed mixing it up with traffic, that said, I also love the protection provided by the Kinzie bicycle lane as well. I guess maybe I like being in traffic, but I don't like being in fast moving traffic if that makes sense.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on May 8, 2012 at 2:28pm

I agree.  I enjoy the streets more than the path as well.  Welcome! And don't forget to introduce yourself here.

spencewine said:

I'm new to Chainlink..my first post, actually. I really enjoyed the article and can relate. I've been bicycle commuting pretty solidly for the last 2 months, before it was much more sporadic. My bicycle commuting renaissance came as I moved to the West Town..... I use to live in Andersonville and would take the lakefront path to work and found it to be a rather boring ride, I know...beautiful lakefront, wide open path, etc....but since I moved to the west side and I have really enjoyed mixing it up with traffic, that said, I also love the protection provided by the Kinzie bicycle lane as well. I guess maybe I like being in traffic, but I don't like being in fast moving traffic if that makes sense.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Zumwalt on May 8, 2012 at 2:39pm

If I thought about half the things that "might happen" I'd never leave the house. There's difference between putting yourself in harms way and navigating through life.

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