A bike is a timeless machine, as anyone who has been sucked into the vortex of spinning wheels will tell you.

Last year, during the month of September, I road nearly 1900 miles between where my wife and I live in Arlington VA, to my home town of Vernal in Utah. It was an unforgettable journey. In the coming weeks, I will document some of the most compelling moments of the trip--most of them surprise encounters with the people along the way. A few key phrases will guide the documentation:

• Fork-Stem False Start: $29.95 and the bumbs in all beginnings
• "Persistence Furthers" --David Lerner 
• Brewsky in Frostburg and other memories of foaming drinks at high altitude 
• Jody Patton--the patient photographer
• ____, Missoula Team 
• Pike and Company and why a bike that 'fits' is overrated
• A reflection on Ohio: redefining kindness
• Chicago: The McDonalds Encounter, Persistence Furthers Reprise
• Somonauk: A Personal Definition 
• Ed Brown: A Party Not to Miss
• Muse: Corn, Soy, Grasshopper, Repeat 
• Interlude: Bishop's Biker Bandit 
• Pat's Party Proverb: "I make the kite, but they are the wind."
• The Biker's Shed and why biking is such a big deal in Iowa
• Omaha: Or why bikers should pass through Omaha 
• The Long Road: Stories from route 30 Nebraska 
• Too Much Room in the Inn: The Sedgwick Vision 
• The Stone Man: Magic in the Grasslands 
• Early Winter in the Rockies
• Company on the Road
• Spiritual Ground Zero: More Blue Mountain Magic
• Reunion: Reflection of the Importance of Motion 
  

...opposition series continued

March 30, 2014

On Opposition

We are

A hundred weights

And counter weights

Hanging on the Fulcrum

Of Christ

Where one is cut

Another drops into the abyss

Whipping violently

Its leash (lease?)

Around the fulcrum

Where one is heavy

Another drags

Where one is light

Another sags

We jostle and jockie by size

And make room and apologize

And knock heads

And take sides

And despair

And despise

And defend

And deride

And Abide

And we all together suffer

And we all together strive

Hanging on the Fulcrum

Of Christ

And yet

We are suspended!

-----

I pray to know

And do not know still

And yet it is there

I would be content

With but a hint

Or so I think

Until the hint comes

And then I want two hints

A trail of hints leading

To an X which will mark the spot

Where all my suspicions

Will be confirmed or denied.

All I get

Is the hint of a hint

The inflammation of suspision

And yet it is there.

Vascilating between

Trust and Wonder

I hang as a weight and counter weight 

On a Fulcrum.

----

Agonist

Antagonist

Synergist

Antogonist’s synergist

Antagoinizing the agonist’s synergist

Bone…Muscle…Fascia…

I do not

Stand

Or Run

Or Sit

Or Sleep

Or Shit

Or Move

Or Reflect

Or Improve

Without Tension

The fist that slams

That strangers hams

The cheek that bears

The fist he shares

Two bodies contend

Their motion animated

By Tension.

The legacy of our movement too,

Pivots on a Fulcrum. 

Object

Only a thing, but in space a king

That holds a place in time; a being

For when the arc of time will bend

This thing will profer us an end.

in imitation of:

Only a thought but the work it wrought

Cannot be pen nor tongue be taught

For it ran through life like a thread of gold

And the life bore fruit one hundred fold

Reflections of the Chesapeake, 1608
July 24, 2009

O Mother River
who has carried me
so long

O Father Tree
who has long pointed
the way

O Brother Grass
who has given me place
to lie

O Sister Wind
who makes the earth
to sing

I hold Thee
like warm sunshine
in my heart

You fly from me
on the wings
of an eagle

And echo long
in River, Tree, Grass, and Wind
my Home

when all the earth was clean it was most alive
all she had to offer was evidence of this
the birds songs were long and happy in the trees
the trees sent roots down and long branches up
they moved only with the wind
they lived and died just as long as they should
they gave back all they took and more
leaving the earth richer, open for new growth
scented sweetly with green and brown mineral
and the rains fell in pure color then
speeding from cloud to earth in pure light
saturating earth
bubbling in the pond
pooling in the stream
flowing in the river
crashing in the ocean
dissolving in the sky
falling again in clear light
each time the earth celebrated with motion
the things the water moved in its force and before that
the woods creatures all moved at the coming
the leaves and blades of grass trembled
the birds went mute and turned their song to diving
like pools of black and fluid light in the sky
revel in the rain
the rolling cloud silver at their backs
the lightning glinting off their wings
the thunderous motion of the wind
making them light up the sky
seldom so free as when the rains come
but all this is forgotten
when the lifting clouds part like a curtain
and the face of everything shines
in yellow sunlight
then for moments all the surface of things sigh
caught in transition
happy to be wet and drying
thankful for warmth
for light cutting down in strands
through the grass and leaves
water lilting at its surface
fish quiet in their frenzy
begin to nap in cool shaded banks
the birds take to singing again
a prayer for rain
the earth is clean
it is most alive

Response to Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Reflections on Chauvet Cave

When first he saw his hand

Then he became a man

First laping water like a dog

At midnight

At a stream

With and hiding from

Other animals

His eyes only for them

His ears only for them

See how they move

Shoulder blade punching through

Paws flaired

Hungry to eat flesh

Hungry to make flesh

Hungry to rest a while by the water

He saw emotive animals

Lapping water at midnight

They took refuge in a cave

Bones of prehistoric bears

Cast eternally in cave drip

Saved for all time

In the belly of their mother

Smears of smoke

Dressing the walls

30,000 years ago

He pressed his hand here

His first signature

Pressed indelibly by his own fear

Of the unknown

Of death;

He made life

He pressed a rock to the wall

And gave birth to a lion

A lionness—troubled by the lion

A heartsick lionness

Flairing paw for food

Flooding a glacial plane

With tears of frustration

Oh how they move!

Oh how he knew!

And then he saw his hand

This one we call Adam. 

TNT_2

Week 1 Observations:
1. tendency to raise shoulders, draw neck forward, and clench right hand, including tension prior to beginning in anticipation
2. in response to a clenching right hand, I removed right hand from notebook: right hand still unconsciously tense, pacing is slower, left hand more deliberate
3. success with 'reversibility' early during one day while listening to the news. Thought: "maybe I don't know"
4. improved legibility with a change in medium from pen to pencil
5. most legible when writing unconsciously

TNT_1

observations:
 1. tendency to clench paper with right thumb
 2. clumsy left to right movement, regular adjustment of left hand on page
 3. tendency to draw neck forward towards page
 4. spell 'tongue' wrong repeatedly when typing, not so when writing

time: 10 mins
words: 160