If you don't enjoy it, don't do it!

Sorry for the long period between posts!  After a great ride to Lynda's for dinner on Sunday, I was called by my family, informing me that my older son, Patrick, had fallen while climbing a tree and had broken his ankle.  I rode an hour to the hospital and for most of the week, riding was sporadic.  He's doing well and recovering, though it turned out to be his talus bone, not his ankle, which necesitated five pins, a splint, and three months of no weight on his right foot.  Which means no driving for him.

Riding an hour to the hospital to get to your child is not in itself a fun experience.  When you are going to the hospital for an unexpected emergency, you generally go with some level of anxiety.  Is he/she okay?  Could anything have been done differently to prevent this?  What is going to happen from here?

But as Jesus had said, when has worrying about anything ever added one good thing to your life?  So I rode, putting my son into the hands of the Heavenly Father.  And the ride was enjoyable.  It allowed me a period of meditative Zen before having to deal with doctors and nurses and worried family members. 

Which brings me to the point of this post: I can ride my Harley like most people drive their car if I wish: get on and go, only thinking of my destination, the work ahead of me, and using a bluetooth device to either talk on the phone or listen to music.  However, while I do listen to music and sometimes use the phone with a hands free device when I drive, I also enjoy my drive just as I enjoy my ride.  A large percentate of motorists, however, do not enjoy their drive.  It is a chore, an arduous experience to get through at the beginning and end of each workday.  Tensions rise, tempers flare, and people end up at their destination more stressed out than if they had simply called a cab.

So the bottom line is, if you hate it that much, why do you do it?  Call a cab, take the bus, ride the train.  If all of those people who view cars as appliances and driving as a chore would do this, our roads would be less congested and less stressful.  People would be happier and we'd reduce fuel consumption.  Prices at the pump might go down too; they tend to do that when demand drops.

So ride free and true, my friends!