Since I ride my bike a lot, I come across a lot of dead animals in the road -- "roadkill", a dismissive term if there ever was one. Earlier this year I got to the point where I couldn't pass by these carcasses of our fellow creatures anymore, so now I stop and bury them. I carry latex gloves in my bag or find a plastic bag on the ground nearby (sadly, these too are everywhere). I find a nice spot if I can, scoop out some dirt and leaves, pick up the critter by its tail, lay it in the hole, cover it with dirt and leaves and say a little benediction like, "Sorry, little buddy", then move on. Since I started doing this 8 months ago I've buried 26 animals: squirrels (lots of them), a possum, a jackrabbit, 2 rats, one deer (a beautiful two-point buck that I could only cover with boughs and leaves), one raven and two blue jays.
It was a blue jay that started this whole thing. One day as I habitually swerved around the dead blue jay in the bike lane I heard a bird singing in a tree directly adjacent to where the dead one lay, and noted that I'd never heard a bird singing there before (and I usually notice birdsong because it's something I really love). The next day riding in I saw the same dead blue jay and heard a bird singing there again! Well, that stopped me in my tracks. Had it been singing all that time, since the other one was killed? Was it singing for its mate, for its mother, for its child? I went back, found a bag, buried the dead jay and moved on. The next time I rode by that spot -- and every time since -- I've not heard a bird singing there.
It's intense and humbling to pick up a dead body. It's a powerful feeling to have a close encounter with a dead creature, to heft it and carry it and consign it to the earth. I don't think that the drivers who've killed these animals are always aware that they've killed or even HIT something -- a squirrel is nothing compared to an SUV doing 45 mph -- and I'm always hoping but not entirely certain that these critters die right after impact. Sometimes their expressions are anquished or strained, and sometimes what's left of them is just too gruesome to describe here. The one day I buried a beautiful black squirrel I noticed that its fur was very much like my pug Frodo's fur, and I had to sit on the side of the road and cry for a bit.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Yoga and Stretching
It feels great to stretch. Most of us forget both how good it really feels and that we should do it more often. How odd that something so pleasurable (which for that reason alone should appeal to a sensory hedonist like me!) should continually slip my mind. And here are even more reasons to stretch frequently: Yoga requires no equipment, no specific location, no time frame, no advance preparation. Yoga takes you wherever and however you are, and shows you where you're tight, blocked, hurt. Yoga takes you out of your mind and back into your body; it tells you how you are. While you're stretching it finds your compromises, your pain, your rigidity, your resistance. As it shows you these things with grace, you can make the choice to meet them and push through them, or not.
It's difficult to hold a negative thought or emotion when you're stretching. It's as if your body is releasing negativity and unbinding your mind as you release the physical tension. Of course the two are related: Stress is negative emotion trapped in your physical form.
The NYTimes recently came out with an article warning those who are warming up before physical activity NOT to do static stretches, but instead run a bit to warm up, then actively stretch and lunge and kick and extend, all the while continuing to move. Static stretching, it turns out, is better for relaxing and post-exercise, but can actually have the opposite effect for those gearing up for strenuous activity.
It's difficult to hold a negative thought or emotion when you're stretching. It's as if your body is releasing negativity and unbinding your mind as you release the physical tension. Of course the two are related: Stress is negative emotion trapped in your physical form.
The NYTimes recently came out with an article warning those who are warming up before physical activity NOT to do static stretches, but instead run a bit to warm up, then actively stretch and lunge and kick and extend, all the while continuing to move. Static stretching, it turns out, is better for relaxing and post-exercise, but can actually have the opposite effect for those gearing up for strenuous activity.
Tales of Airport Security
(title for this was stolen from Harry Shearer's excellent radio program and podcast, "Le Show" on KCRW -- highly recommended!)
Today (July 30, 2008) at the airport, after clearing security and waiting for my plane just across from the security scanners I watched as the TSA crew pulled a man aside to go through his carry-on luggage. He was tall and wore glasses, and he also had a large manicured beard and black curly hair; he had the appearance of a kindly Muslim professor. The TSA agent was oddly boisterous and trying to be funny to cover his own obvious discomfort with the situation. The man indicated that he'd been through this routine before and the agent repeated this, laughing loudly and awkwardly. I tried not to watch so as not to make the passenger uncomfortable but I had to steal glances at him because I was touched both by his situation and his gentle nobility while enduring it. His wife stood quietly by and waited, and I felt extremely sorry for her, too.
I couldn't help thinking while I was watching this whole thing, "What are we doing"? This man clearly was no threat to anyone, and yet his looks matched what we're surely profiling: middle-eastern-looking men. But were the TSA agents just doing this to look busy, or did they have an imperative to check a few folks every hour, or perhaps did they see something in him or his luggage that I didn't see? I don't feel any more secure, that's for sure.
Today (July 30, 2008) at the airport, after clearing security and waiting for my plane just across from the security scanners I watched as the TSA crew pulled a man aside to go through his carry-on luggage. He was tall and wore glasses, and he also had a large manicured beard and black curly hair; he had the appearance of a kindly Muslim professor. The TSA agent was oddly boisterous and trying to be funny to cover his own obvious discomfort with the situation. The man indicated that he'd been through this routine before and the agent repeated this, laughing loudly and awkwardly. I tried not to watch so as not to make the passenger uncomfortable but I had to steal glances at him because I was touched both by his situation and his gentle nobility while enduring it. His wife stood quietly by and waited, and I felt extremely sorry for her, too.
I couldn't help thinking while I was watching this whole thing, "What are we doing"? This man clearly was no threat to anyone, and yet his looks matched what we're surely profiling: middle-eastern-looking men. But were the TSA agents just doing this to look busy, or did they have an imperative to check a few folks every hour, or perhaps did they see something in him or his luggage that I didn't see? I don't feel any more secure, that's for sure.
2008 Bike Commute Update
16 more rides into work this year and I'll have 3,000 bike-commute miles for 2008! Last year I managed 1,750, and I did just over 1,600 the year before. This year I decided to just go whole-hog and ride in every day possible. Now every day that I drive in ('cause sometimes I have to have the car mid-day for an appointment or be somewhere fast after work) I notice how awful it is to drive -- compared to riding a bike -- and I feel sorry for those that have to drive every day. My car-commute's only 20 minutes, and that's in the fast lane (in a Prius with car-pool-lane stickers).
Riding so much has really changed me, reduced my stress, raised my awareness about our environment, made me fitter, brought me closer to the earth, given me more time to breathe and sweat and meditate.
I read somewhere that the average American spends 10 minute outdoors. If that's true, it's pathetic. I know how much being outdoors has changed me, soothed me, awakened me, taught me, centered me. Seeing the world around you at bike-speed is more "human" and allows you to notice the world in ways you can't possibly manage inside a car.
I'll flesh some of these ideas out in later posts. Do you ride to work, or have you thought about trying it? I'd love to hear from others who are trying this, about their challenges and observations.
Riding so much has really changed me, reduced my stress, raised my awareness about our environment, made me fitter, brought me closer to the earth, given me more time to breathe and sweat and meditate.
I read somewhere that the average American spends 10 minute outdoors. If that's true, it's pathetic. I know how much being outdoors has changed me, soothed me, awakened me, taught me, centered me. Seeing the world around you at bike-speed is more "human" and allows you to notice the world in ways you can't possibly manage inside a car.
I'll flesh some of these ideas out in later posts. Do you ride to work, or have you thought about trying it? I'd love to hear from others who are trying this, about their challenges and observations.
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