Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Life over Death

I've been biking to work. And some days, like yesterday, the trip is so beautiful that one almost can't stand it. Just beautiful. The light was incredible, the air was clean and invigorating, the wind was whispering in the trees and the birds were singing. It was great. You didn't even have to be crazy-happy like I am to enjoy it all.

Being crazy happy though, I waxed poetic (poetic in my mind, at any rate) to a co-worker about how much I was enjoying biking to work. Which he, sometimes, does too. His take on the ride?

"Yeah, I guess. What I really notice more when I'm riding intead of driving is all the dead stuff. Road kill like everywhere. Flat dried out birds and gophers, and rabbits too. And sometimes when you first see it, if the rabbit is big enough, the first thing you think is that maybe it's like, a body part or something. From a dead person*".

Wow. And I used to think he was just a bit of a "always sees the glass as half empty" kind of person. I guess what he really is is a "sees the glass as having dead things in it" kind of person. Not that I haven't had my own dead person ponderings, but still: how do you bike to work on a gorgeous summer's day and only see what's down and dead?

*Like there would be body parts from the living. No more shoes on the side of the road, but arms and legs and heads.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

On the other hand, by always looking at the beauty around you, you're more likely to run OVER the road kill then have a stinky bike to wash.

See? There's always the "other side of the story".