Enough, already!

So, last night, parenthood and bike racing clashed and I heard the word "obsession" used in the same sentence as "bike". Now, first let me say that I am truly fortunate to have a spouse who not only shares my passion for cycling, but is much better at it than I am, too. But G's lack of riding and my non-stop babbling about how much "fun" 'cross has been sorta came to a head. I want to set the record straight, though. I am not obsessed with bikes or riding bikes. I like to think of it as love. Not puppy love or infatuation, but that burning, intense, can't-stop-thinking-about-you kind of love. Obsessives build bikes and like to rattle off stats, watts and weights, lovers ride themselves into an endorphin riddled euphoria and can't understand why no one else finds joy in pushing the physical limits of their body.

The other day at school, a student asked me, "Mr. Moore, why do you ride your bike to school?" This is a much less common question than you would suspec,t as your average middle schooler is not exactly all that curious about anyone other than themselves (shocker!). I looked at him and asked, "Do you think riding your bike is fun?" He nodded yes. "So do I", I said. He grinned and acted like that was a pretty good answer, which made me think: how many adults do something simply because it's fun? Not enough, if the high-strung, ego-centric people I see ripping around in their cars trying to be first in line in some imaginary competition that seems to break out on the roads around here, is any indication.

Golden turned me on to this band, The Jellydots and their song, "Bicycle". Check it out. It's like an anthem to being an adult who still finds joy in what most people (unbelievably) think is a toy.

I read an article about Kelly Slater, the pro surfer, who just won the surfing world championships after coming out of retirement. He said that he re-found his love of surfing through a chance meeting with a 54 year-old skater. The skater was talking about how quantum physics is the fountain of youth and that since "anything" is possible at the quantum level, he believed that he was able to stay young simply by picking the age he wanted to be and then living his life the way he had when had been that age. I don't know about that, but I do know that I don't feel the same age as a lot of my colleagues. Even colleagues that are younger than me strike me as being older.

I guess this is a really roundabout way of saying that I think bikes are keeping me young. What do you think?