“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself.”
― Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values
Every Sunday morning, I get on Flaming Lips, my current motorcycle and head south from Kilauea to Lihue to meet with my riding friends, the Sons of Kauai. After a minute or two, I settle into my personal slouch, the signature posture of any serious rider. It is always early in the day and depending upon season, the bright light of a waking island is higher or lower in the sky. The sound of the wind and the engine crowd out any other sounds, creating an audio cocoon, allowing my mind to roam free.
My mind is sealed in an envelope of private thoughts, intersecting monologues, a conversation between myself and myself, without moving my lips. While I have had some bikes in other places and times in my life, my internal voice was never as audible to me as it is now.
Flaming Lips pierces the landscape in front me, my thoughts always catching up from behind. It is a two wheeled fulcrum, balancing the instant just ahead with the percolating monologue just over my shoulder. Maybe it is the freedom in the ride, weightlessness in the moment that puts me in a mental pulpit, exhorting a congregation of one. Fracking, Ebola, the .01%, Violence, Drones, Poverty, Execution, Privacy, and Environment are a fraction of the words that compel me to begin this journey of sharing my own words with you. Please don’t get the wrong idea, while the broken pieces of our humanity spike my spiritual temperature, love of sons, grandson, girlfriend, sweet memories and all that floats my heart into a lighter than air waltz also cry out for attention. I often wish I could freeze my thoughts and thaw them when I am near a keyboard.
I am not sure when the idea of riding and writing first hit me. I was told a long time ago, when traits of my astrological sign were explained, that I was a Gemini. It seems we are split in half, subject to pushes and pulls, always in conversation with ourselves. At times, it can make me a pain in the ass, unable to answer a simple question without hesitating and equivocating. How are you feeling is never easy for me to answer. Straddling the steel steed on a bright, Kauai day is all I need to blow the bubbles of countless ideas into the ether of the cycle winds.
It was on one of those Sunday mornings early in my 70th year that I had an idea and all of me agreed on the spot. I was going to rent a motorcycle and ride along the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. Listen, I don’t care how old you are because there is no need to count the notches in your own calendar in order to justify a celebration. I started flipping this flapjack idea and it began taking shape and still is.
When I was incredibly young, no more than three or four, I would entertain my father with imitations of personalities like Jimmy Durante, a legendary Vaudevillian, known for his schnozzola or big nose. Like many artists of his generation, he made the transition to very early black and white television. When my father came home after several weeks on the road, I would greet him at the door, wearing one of his grown up hats and singing Inka Dinka Doo. I had some affinity for performance and humor was the ticket that got punched. Conformity had its way with me, but just below the surface, Durante lurked. Many years later, I promoted a huge concert series in Santa Fe, NM and a number of other events, feeling very comfortable in the role of producer.
This celebratory motorcycle journey was not going to be your ordinary bucket list entry, checked off on some clipboard of life accomplishments. It presented an opportunity to put together riding and writing, sharing a personal experience with others, using my marketing background at the same time. Right around the time I began hatching the idea, I was fortunate enough to get a monthly, social commentary column in ForKauai. This provided some creative structure for me and the impetus for putting up my blog.
So, there you have it, the beginning of our ride together.