James Burleigh
Well-known member
I have a global positioning system (GPS) unit on the dashboard of my motorcycle. I chose the cute female Australian voice, so I call her Sheila. When I ride across town or as far as Santa Barbara or Los Angeles, Sheila tells me my estimated arrival time. She uncannily good at it.
It's fun to go fast on a motorcycle. There's just something about them. And so that's what I did from when I got my first one in 2003--almost 10 years ago: I went fast.
Coupled with that has been an abiding sense that it's the next moment that will bring the joy, not the current moment, so I must rush to get to that next moment.
But a cocktail that combines motorcycle speed and rushing to get to the next moment can be increased adrenalin, stress, and blood pressure, particularly in rush hour traffic. I honestly think rush hour riding contributed to my heart attack two years ago.
But Sheila taught me that, regardless of the variance in my average speed, faster or slower (even a lot faster), I was still gonna get to my destination at roughly the same time. So here is the Life Lesson Learned From Sheila:
Stuff takes as long as it takes. So just relax, be present in the moment, and enjoy (en-JOY) the ride. Oh well, sometimes life lessons are kinda trite sounding. These cliches come to mind: Life is a journey, not a destination. Or even, Stop and smell the roses. But I think when you discover on your own the truth of a cliche, then it is no longer a cliche, but wisdom.
It's fun to go fast on a motorcycle. There's just something about them. And so that's what I did from when I got my first one in 2003--almost 10 years ago: I went fast.
Coupled with that has been an abiding sense that it's the next moment that will bring the joy, not the current moment, so I must rush to get to that next moment.
But a cocktail that combines motorcycle speed and rushing to get to the next moment can be increased adrenalin, stress, and blood pressure, particularly in rush hour traffic. I honestly think rush hour riding contributed to my heart attack two years ago.
But Sheila taught me that, regardless of the variance in my average speed, faster or slower (even a lot faster), I was still gonna get to my destination at roughly the same time. So here is the Life Lesson Learned From Sheila:
Stuff takes as long as it takes. So just relax, be present in the moment, and enjoy (en-JOY) the ride. Oh well, sometimes life lessons are kinda trite sounding. These cliches come to mind: Life is a journey, not a destination. Or even, Stop and smell the roses. But I think when you discover on your own the truth of a cliche, then it is no longer a cliche, but wisdom.
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