Cars feel so tethered down to the system, to expectations, to the cold pragmatism of the systems that are. I expect to go someplace in a car, because that is how you go someplace. Cars are for commutes, cars are symbols of success.
It seems that the alternative, then, should be walking, but walking isn't free either. Walking is nice for recreation, but it is slow, it is impractical, it will never get us where we need to be, only allow us to navigate that place once we've arrived.
You can see, then, why bikes are necessary. Bikes are the third option that make life possible. They are slower than cars, forcing us to pace our life, slow down and breathe. At the same time they are mobile, they can get us where we need to be in a way that cars cannot. I want one like this one:
3 comments:
see... It depends on the car.
As a driver of a 78 el camino, my car is a part of my personality in a way that people attempt to assimilate bikes into there's. I think that the correct vehicle matches the person who controls it.
And as a SoCal raised child, cars are a mostly necessary. I wouldn't be able to reach any of my friends without a car to even get across town. Which does match your complaints, but there's something freeing about driving for miles on the open road in a vehicle that is an extension of self instead of a definition of self.
That does sound good and free. I do not claim to speak for what frees others, and I love your el camino with you. A bike would not make the same kind of sense as part of your distinctive person.
I think there's a car out there that is meant for you.
You just have to find it ;-)
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