I commuted to work for the last seven years of my career. Two to three days a week I rode what I called the “Twelve Miles Of Terror” between my home and my office. There was a bike lane, for half the route, but it was alongside a parkway with cars, trucks, motorcycles and busses zooming by at fifty or sixty miles per hour. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. The other half of my commute was made up of surface streets with far less traffic, but the ever present hazards of intersections, driveways, narrow spots, pedestrians, kids, dogs, etc. It was the ‘etc’ that was always worrisome. You never knew what would suddenly appear in front of you. Life was an adventure each day I rode to work. I never needed caffeine on those mornings. I arrived at work fully vibrant and alert. Sometimes even terrified with my heart still pounding from some chance encounter on the way to the office.
There’s a lot that can be, (and probably has been), said about bike riding being a metaphor for life. There are ups and downs. There are storms and sunshine. There’s danger and peace. There’s give and take. There’s times when you really have to work hard to get somewhere and there’s times when you can just coast.
I’m one of those people who looks for purpose and meaning in life . . . to live a life of significant contribution. Throughout my career as a music educator and later as an administrator in charge of a School For The Creative and Performing Arts, and even now as Director of an Arts Academy, I’ve been blessed to feel that I have been able to effect change. That lives of children have been enriched deeply. That those who I worked with shoulder to shoulder felt they had a strong colleague and friend that they could count on at all times. Our accomplishments were many. The classrooms full of dusty trophies and plaques are a testimony to extraordinary achievement. Those rooms and offices were the essence of the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. For me it was always that the journey was far more important than the destination. Of course you had to have a destination or there wouldn’t be a journey, but the defining moments were found as often along the way as they were in the end results. Ahh yes, back to the 'biking as life' metaphor!
I’m pleased to say that many of the programs and processes so many people helped me put in place over the thirty-seven years I spent in education are still there. Still functioning. Still succeeding on behalf of students, teachers, schools, and communities. The power of the arts in a child’s life can never be overstated.
The other day, though, I had one of many humbling moments. In the two years since I retired, I had not ridden my bike along the route that I used to frequent two or three times a week when I was commuting to work. There was one spot near my home where I had literally trampled some scrub brush to create a shortcut to get to a bike lane. Over seven years of commuting it had become a pretty well worn path, that allowed me quick access to a paved road.
But in only two years time, the path that I had beaten down over my seven years of commuting to work is now almost completely overgrown. Only the vaguest vestige of a path remains. The impact of my commuting days has all but vanished. Probably for the best as far as the foliage is concerned, but still and all it made me realize how fleeting our purpose, meaning, contribution and significance can be. Sometimes you carve a path that is followed for a long time. Sometimes you carve a path that is overgrown in a short amount of time. I'm going for eternal significance these days.
Yet another life lesson learned on two skinny wheels.
“For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” James 4:15 (NKJV)
Very thought-provoking!
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