Meet Number 13.
A bike with faults that make handling difficult but not impossible. The handlebars are crooked, and the seat is unstable. The gears are rusty and don't always work their best, but she's still usable. This was the bike that I had the 'privilege' of riding down to the beach this weekend. And strangely enough, I learned something from it. I had picked the bike because no one else had ridden it before and the seat was nice and cool. Besides, I'm on vacation. Might as well claim a bike for the week.
So, the trip that I took with Number 13 wasn't very long or difficult. The only thing the road had, was bumps. Not tiny bumps, but full grown cracks coming up from the pavement. Large enough to shake me off of my seat a few times. Granted, that wasn't hard since I spent the entire ride constantly scooting back onto the seat so I wouldn't slide off. The bumps would also interrupt my focus of steering. Steering's rather easy on a bicycle, but on this particular bicycle it was not. To go straight, one must hold the handlebars like you're turning left. To go right, hold them straight. The fifteen minute ride to the beach was aggravating, but I managed to do it.
And this is were people come in. It's a bit of a stretch, relating a human to a bike, but we already refer to most of our toys as "she", so let's give it a shot.
Riding this bike reminded me a lot about relationships that I have with people. You start out excited with this brand new friend to get to know. You don't notice imperfections right away, because you haven't exactly started the test drive. Now, on a perfect road you wouldn't care about the handle of the bike, just that it assisted in getting from A to B. But when life gets really rough and hard to deal with, you can't afford having a friend that let's you slide off stability, or is constantly steering you the wrong way. Granted, you may get through the drama, and finally have a spot of peace when you rest, but it won't last long. Soon you'll be hitting bump after bump, and you'll realize how unstable your companion was in the first place.
So, the trip that I took with Number 13 wasn't very long or difficult. The only thing the road had, was bumps. Not tiny bumps, but full grown cracks coming up from the pavement. Large enough to shake me off of my seat a few times. Granted, that wasn't hard since I spent the entire ride constantly scooting back onto the seat so I wouldn't slide off. The bumps would also interrupt my focus of steering. Steering's rather easy on a bicycle, but on this particular bicycle it was not. To go straight, one must hold the handlebars like you're turning left. To go right, hold them straight. The fifteen minute ride to the beach was aggravating, but I managed to do it.
And this is were people come in. It's a bit of a stretch, relating a human to a bike, but we already refer to most of our toys as "she", so let's give it a shot.
Riding this bike reminded me a lot about relationships that I have with people. You start out excited with this brand new friend to get to know. You don't notice imperfections right away, because you haven't exactly started the test drive. Now, on a perfect road you wouldn't care about the handle of the bike, just that it assisted in getting from A to B. But when life gets really rough and hard to deal with, you can't afford having a friend that let's you slide off stability, or is constantly steering you the wrong way. Granted, you may get through the drama, and finally have a spot of peace when you rest, but it won't last long. Soon you'll be hitting bump after bump, and you'll realize how unstable your companion was in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment