This article is based on an article I wrote ten years ago.
In a few weeks, I will be putting my 1996 Honda Magna back into the garage to hibernate until spring. So this seemed like a good time to share my motorcycling philosophy in four principles.
1. The journey is as important as the destination
Clichéd perhaps, but still true. Motorcyclists prefer the winding country road to the interstate. From my motorcycle, I’ve learned to apply that philosophy to life. Don’t be in a hurry to get anywhere. Look up from your smartphone, enjoy the moment, and be here now.
2. You don’t need a lot of stuff
Life in materialistic western society is all about collecting junk. Cars cater to it by allowing us the luxury of hauling all that junk around. But not motorcycles. There is only so much space and every item must be justified on every journey. If only we travelled through life as lightly as we must travel on our motorcycles.
3. Everything has a season
The falling leaves, bright orange pumpkins on the porch, the flying V of the Canadian geese heading south with a flurry of parting honks, the pale blue sky of a late autumn afternoon, they all signal the end of motorcycling season. It is a melancholy time, but it is not bitter. Instead, it is a surprisingly sweet reminder of the rhythm of the seasons and of life itself. Motorcycles remind us that there is a time for everything so accept it as it comes.
4. Memento Mori (Remember, you are mortal.)
I’ve had three accidents over the years, the most recent one into the back of a Mazda 3 hatchback. And I’ll tell you this: dropping five hundred pounds of hot metal onto your leg and bouncing your head off the asphalt is not soon forgotten. Indeed, it has given me an invaluble reminder that I am indeed mortal.
When my daughter was young, I told her I had been diagnosed with “HMS”. “What’s that?” she asked suspiciously. I replied, “Human mortality syndrome.” She rolled her eyes and replied, “Everyone has that, dad.”
Indeed, we do. And my motorcycle never lets me forget.
