Bicycle Musings

I was biking cross town this a.m. making my way to my monthly public health classes, and it got me to thinking.  I love biking, or running, or swimming for the thinking it allows me to do.  I find I have some of my most productive insights while I'm active.  As the author of Spark, John Ratey, has noted, exercise is as good for the brain as it is for the body.

Among my many motivations for bike commuting is exercise certainly, but I also enjoy the ease of parking and the cost (essentially free) when compared with the alternatives.  This morning, especially, I was motivated to bike, as the POTUS  is visiting Ohio State's campus today to kick off his re-election campaign.  Unfortunately, I can't be in attendance for the speech, as I'll be taking a biostatistics exam.  I'm fortunate, however, as I biked in, and will bike out, of campus with ease, while my classmates have suffered today's special event traffic.

Which brings me to this graphic I came across on line a week or so ago:

This cartoon reminds me of the famous saying inscribed on Woody Guthries' guitar, "This Machine Kills Fascists."



Even a climate change skeptic (I'm surprised by how many people I still encounter who count themselves in that camp) would be hard put to argue against this sentiment. Let's do something patriotic and get rid of our addiction to 'foreign oil.'  We can depend on the Middle East less by drilling more, sure; but we can also do so more simply by getting on those bikes sitting in the garage. By choosing to move on our own feet, or on wheels we propel ourselves, we are making a choice for our health, for our environment, and for our country.

My bike:  the weapon to wield in the fight against middle age gut, brain decline, climate change, and foreign oil dependency.  .

I'm heading back for more classes tomorrow a.m., so there will be more bike musings to come.