This is why I ride

Look forward, look back
London, ON
May 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Every time I manage to ride my bike to the office, I give myself a little high-five. Because it's a victory, of sorts, a politely defiant screw-you to a universe that more than once tried to end my two-wheeler journey long before I had a chance to return home.

I've been chased by an angry pickup truck driver, and plowed into by a guy arguing with his wife. I've flattened wheels in potholes, boo-booed myself after greasing out on an unseen patch of sand, and torn an artery by turning my head wrong.

You'd think by now I'd get the message and either stay home or find some other way to get around. Indeed, I'm lucky I've got options: a city bus line that takes me virtually door-to-door, a wife who would happily drive me anywhere, a car of my own that I strangely adore. No disrespect meant to any of these alternatives - or my beyond-incredible wife - but they aren't the same.

Because nothing feels quite as right as propelling myself nearly silently across the city - the meshing of the gears and the wind in my ears providing the perfect, hushed soundtrack. Nothing comes close to disconnecting me from the rush-rush world - no notifications, no conversations, just me and my convoluted brain, free to churn new things to write about when I get to my destination. Nothing feels quite so freeing. Nothing makes me feel as alive as this.

So I'll deal with the risks, the dangers, the texting, disinterested London drivers who despise me for having the temerity to want to share the road. Because moments like this, on a bridge over a burbling river, on a bike path, when your legs feel capable of taking you anywhere, feel indescribably rich within my soul. Because life without cycling is something I never want to imagine, let alone experience.

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