The (Bi)cycle of Life

The next time you are stopped at a traffic signal and a group of bicyclists comes up next to you to and has to wait along with you, pay attention to the various ways in which they deal with the challenge. One or two will know right away that they need to unclip from their pedals and plant at least one, if not both feet, on the ground. Others will begin a complicated ballet of back-pedaling, tire wriggling and shoulder wrenching in the service of staying upright. Perhaps one will have mastered those steps so well that he or she just stands upright, eyes straight ahead, arms and legs stiff – you can barely see a twitch as they maintain a stoic balance. There may even be an unfortunate who, despite noble attempts, ultimately crashes to the ground.

Of course, once the light changes and the pack moves out, they melt into a fluid mass of sleek, comfortable looking travelers. It’s much harder to tell the expert from the newcomer. You see cyclists are reminded of something many times on every trip that could easily serve as a mantra for many of us – “it’s easier to stay balanced when you are moving forward”. The physics aside, one of the hardest things to do in life is maintain the status quo. Keeping everything just the way it has always been may be conceivable at a personal level, but your radius of control is constrained by many other factors, and you can’t predict what other people around you will do, how markets will behave, the impact of seemingly distant political decisions, and many more things that could have an impact on the way things will go.

Better to heed the lessons of the bicycle riders and recognize that the ride is much easier when you are moving forward that it is when you try to stay stopped.

Of course, it’s good to know what direction you are going as well, but that topic is for another day….