I went to a different town last week, on work. One of my favorite colleagues, Bob, works in that office. I like him because he's a very nice, helpful, knowledgeable chap. Oh, and he also has a 900 cc '96 Ducati. He wants to buy an even more powerful bike now.
Another colleague I met that day, your everyday, mild-mannered chemist, had a 600 cc Kawasaki.
I love my colleagues. I don't really care about the bikes. I don't. No, seriously.
So we exchanged biking stories, discussed how these machines get our blood flowing to all the right areas. One of the ladies rolled her eyes and asked me "you're not a biker too, are ya, NS?".
I nodded, and she gave us a look as if to say, oh you boys. You young, hot blooded, crazy reckless boys.
That's what we must be, right? Young. It's like a pre-requisite. Who else would be crazy enough to buy such machines, which so drastically increase a person's chances of getting killed on the road, right?
Wrong.
Interestingly, Bob's 50, and the other guy's not far off.
The average owner of high powered bikes in this country is around 35 years old. Most of the ones I've seen / met are much older.
Young people drive in cars. Where it's safe.
Later, we were crossing the road to get to the pub. This was a village road, about 5 paces across? There were no cars, no cops, no cameras. I was just about to cross, when Bob stopped me. Bob the fearless rider waited for the pedestrian light to turn green, looked both ways, and walked slowly across.
'Safety first', he said with a smile.
That got me thinking, and later that evening I got to discussing this with my boss over some ale - why do we get more conscious of safety when we get older, when we actually have fewer years ahead of us? How come we are so reckless when young, when we have so much more to lose by way of consequences? Is this just the natural way of life?
Or do kids behave recklessly just because they think this is just how it is? How it's supposed to be, the James Dean factor.
This mental conditioning is interesting. I was listening to some John Coltrane the other day, a slow song called 'After the rain'. It made me feel, you know, a little melancholy. It reminded me of movie scenes where this sort of music is used to produce a feeling of sadness, depression, loneliness etc. Like a Woody Allen movie. And it works. But did I feel that way because I've been conditioned to, because I've watched all these visuals which associate these feelings with that kind of music? Or is the human psyche tuned to connect slow, extended notes with those sorts of emotions?
What would happen if I played this music to a tribal, or someone who has never watched tv / movies, never heard this kind of music or instrument, never been exposed to 'civilisation'?
Of course, the train of thought didn't quite end there, but this was the gist.
But soon, I got distracted by another big question which seemed far more important at the time - how long to boil beans before throwing them into the frying pan along with all the other goop?
One likes to eat healthy, after all.
^
Labels: Bikes, Gyaan
