Snap into a turn

This blog is just going be about me releasing some stress.

I had just got off the phone with my coworkers in India. They're very nice people, and I bet they know more than I will ever do. Sometimes I get so involved in the process that I don't look around to enjoy the days and time that pass before me. But right now, I feel happy for some reason. I think of the things that I could do to make a difference in some people's lives.

I suddenly think of the sunny days that I was out on my bike. The feelings of being pinned into a turn. The adrenaline flow of twisting that throttle so hard, the earth seems to fly by underneath. The ride across the ridge as the sun glares in my helmet visor. The hang off from the seat of the bike as it makes a violent turn while avoiding running wide in a corner.

Sometimes things are happening so fast, you don't have enough time to react. These times are frightening and disturbing, but once your mind and body catches up to the speed, you realize that it is one of the best feeling ever. I am enjoying every minute of this. I wanted to do this. To ignore the risks and focus on some arbitrary end goal. I'm fixated, not on the turn, but the exit point. And everything else is just falling in line. The bike is going to where I am looking. Steering takes little effort, and rhythm takes precedent over process. Maybe something will blindside me, but chances are I will get through this okay. That is all that matters.

I am snapping life into a turn as if it was on a whim, and it feels great. In this environment, I am taking more and more risks, and finding their rewards.

Braking and Entering

As far as corners are concerned, one is never like any other, and every time I take a corner (even if it's the same corner), the feeling is different. The challenges in life, as I see them, are much the same way. However, there is a method to the madness. And to have fun, to truly enjoy doing it, and to survive it, I really believe someone needs think it through before they set out to achieve something.

In motorcycle riding and racing, this means hitting the brake well before you enter a corner, and to spot the nearest entry while braking. It means that once you lean her over and commit to it, it is all gas from there on. This requires experience in cornering, judgment in the environment of the road, and the determination to carry it through, no matter how much you have to lean.

I guess that is why I tend to think more before acting. I see people rushing to act, rushing to judgment, and rushing to get things done without knowing all the impacts. Seeing their failures, I begin to question my own method; and in this madness, I see the light of reasoning. It does not take much, but you realize something important, a breakthrough begins in your mind. I formulate a set of steps and rules to follow, to ensure that whatever happens, I will react the right way. Much of this process is based on other's recommendations and experiences, but it's the fact that I carry them out in my own way that makes it special.

This enables me to go faster and faster each time through a corner. This makes environment a factor in everything I do. This makes the whole thing seem right and effortless. For a moment in this process, mind and soul meets. This is where the thinking and feeling merge; where confidence and action go hand in hand. This mental state is always what I am trying to obtain at the very peak of solving a problem, and it requires thinking as well as doing.

Another lesson to learn from this is to get rid of any excess speed (baggage in personal life) before you start a new challenge. This requires the right mindset and also the knowledge to hit the brake hard when required.

I am now trying to hit the brake as hard as I can. I really don't know what the next corner will bring, so I am spotting my entry and make sure that my speed is right for it. I had love to take high speed blind corners, but one is different: I have been down before. Now, surviving is taking precedence over the excitement of the unknown. And will learn to have fun by beating my demons, not by giving in to them.

Trust me, it's paradise

When I wake up in the morning and finish preparing for my day, I get out to hop on my vehicle to get to work. Hitting that starter switch on the bike always feels different than turning the key in the ignition of the car. It's not just that the rumbling motor is right underneath my butt as opposed to being in front of me. It's that the presence and all its realities suddenly come together in a rush. I stop thinking about the distant future. I stop thinking about this time next year. I stop thinking about tomorrow. I stop thinking about what I will do at work.

I think about this moment. I think about now. The concentration of solving the challenge right in front of me is exciting and rejuvenating. Certainly, in my life, I have dreamed of great moments that would be sweeter than anything I have ever felt before. The temptation is, however, to get lost in those dreams and never get out. Being on the bike cures that syndrome.

When I look back at the pictures of people or myself, I really wonder if they (including me) really savored each and every moment that they were smiling with their friends. If they ever took risks and enjoyed the rewards that it brought. I wonder if people really felt those moments.

Why does this really all matter? Well, because all those moments are paradise. The moment doesn't have to be anything that no one has done before. It doesn't have to be well-publicized or well-known to the masses. Every single obscure moment that you can spend with your friends or quietly by yourself could be a paradise on its own.

That reminds me of a quote - "scars remind us that the past is real". I think we need to go out there and create more scars. It is to know that we truly have lived, and that our dreams led us to do good things. Things that when we look back, we may consider them part of paradise.

Being Invisible

Bikers, in general, are invisible on the roads and in the public policy making decisions. The last good decision that my state made about bikers was to allow them to use the carpool lane. Though this rule is not specific to Washington; it is nation-wide such that air-cooled machine would not break down in the middle of heavy traffic and it is safer for bikes to be on the move vs in stop-and-go situations.

On the road, I can't even start to count the numbers somebody invaded my lane leaving me wondering my own mortality while they just drive on as if nothing happened. We are invisible to everyone except ourselves.

This is a shame because bikers, in my eyes, represent the best in humanity. We are the risk takers, and we take risks at our expense. We always hope for the best but prepare for the worst. We reduce congestion on the road. The best quality has to be the fact that we all have one passion, and we love to share it with other no matter their background or situation. Anyone who puts one leg over the saddle can be my brethren.

Any time we form a group, or introduce a change to the public policies, we are seen more as a nuisance than anything positive. Is this a case of people being jealous, trapped in their own world and detesting anyone or anything that choose not to live by the same rules they do? Until policies change, and the truth be understood by the masses, we will always be chased by cops, looked down upon by other motorists, and portrayed as deviants in the media. Once in a while though, we can see the twinkle in a kid's eye when he sees us, and that makes all the difference in the world.

I have never considered life to be a straight road from birth to death. As the road bends, I have learned, sometimes the hard way, to negotiate it the most successful way. This is my attempt to draw the parallel between motorcycling and MY life. Life happens to me and I happen to live it. I make the most of what I am riding on to extract the most joy out of every single curve in the road ahead.