the bicycle surely

The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets.

~Christopher Morley

I read this and was immediately filled with gratitude and validation. yes, yes it should be.

roller skates, skate boards, razors and pogo sticks are much too slow and unpredictable, and automobiles are much too enclosed and speedy. the bicycle falls right in between, allowing its guide time to gaze, to ponder, to absorb, and to marinate while keeping steadily upon one's way.

ruby is my muse, I suppose, if I were to choose one.

the spin bike, on the other hand, is not.

the spin bike might possibly be the vehicle of masochists and nutcases.

I'm quite certain that christopher morley never, not once, sat upon the saddle of a spin bike and received inspiration. and I'm fairly certain that I have not received much ~ if any ~ inspiration while sitting on those terrible saddles in that loud and smelly room. inspiration to get back on a real bike, perhaps, but very little in the way of literary illumination.

and perhaps that's why I've been dredging the bottom of my creative pond to come up with things to write about lately. maybe I need to reconnect with my muse, feel the air against my skin again, watch the scenery float by instead of moving nowhere for hours and hours every week.

it will come, I will find a time and space to climb back onto ruby's pretty, white saddle, and pedal away, just me and the great big world around us. fresh air, trees, the wind, the winter sky, and an everchanging tableau before me.

perhaps it was while sitting on a bicycle seat that christopher morley formulated my closing quote. if so, I hope that he was on a country road, green trees shading him, slivers of sunlight peaking through and dappling the pavement beneath him. I hope he pedaled leisurely, I hope he felt the fresh air on his cheeks, I hope he heard birds singing and creatures rustling in the brush beside him. and I hope he had some sense of the joy, gratitude, and validation that people like me would, over the years and decades and hopefully far far into the future, find in his words.

whether you sit on a real saddle, a spin bike saddle, a chair lift, a wheelchair cushion, or a car seat, may these following words guide your travel through life:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.