Today was a day to remember our veterans. I wished to have found a town where the Veterans Day Parade would be passing, but unfortunately I am so far into the middle of nowhere that such a town does not exist within 100's of miles. Instead of Veterans, I was greeted by a salute from all the big plastic bears that northern Wisconsin has. It seems that just about every place of tourist business has a big plastic bear right in front to greet you. What kind of greeting this may entail may not be what one may expect; I'm pretty sure that if they were alive they would be very happy to eat ya!
I traveled from the southernmost section of Chequamguion National Forest all the way up to Brule, WI, a journey that took 135 miles of earth to pass beneath. The ride today was absolutely goregous. The wind was out of the south which allowed me lots of miles to ride, the high at 71 and with a clear blue sky above, it made for the most perfect of riding conditions. The scenary differed greatly from what I had passed through in the past, instead of farm fields that went on for what seemed like forever, I spent the whole day riding through National and State Forests.
I had a had a couple of reflections to make that I sort of began to conceptalize of today. One was that I beleive that riding a bike over long distances is hands down the best way in the world to get around, if you can make it as far as I have on a bicycle, the wheels are only limited to the degree in which the imigination of the rider can decide. However, I kept thinking back to a project that I finished for my final in social psycology where one of my main conclusions in advertising of the bicycle was the great paradox that the bicycle lies at the center of post-modernity. In many of our lives we are looking for somthing that allows us to escape the modern economic driven society that we live in. We look for wide open spaces to escape to, ones in which modernity has not quite touched yet. The great paradox though lies in the fact that you need a modern machine, (in this case a cool bike with all sorts of gadgets)created by the industries and man made mechanisms in order to acheive this state. As we try to escape into a world that is void of society and really see the world as God made it, we bring all of our stuff created in the very society that we are trying to escape from with us. So where is truth to be found in all of that ambiguity? I don't really know what are we really trying to prove if were not really escaping from that which we go to such great lengths to do? Do we have to be complete and naked nativists catching and hunting our way through the wild to acheive this mission in the end? I don't think so. I think to a certain extent we have to live and thrive to a certain extent in this hypocricy, afterall we are human, imperfect in any number of ways. But I guess thats why we go on journeys to find something out about ourselves or the people that surround us that we didn't quite understand before. Not quite sure though....
The bicycle though does offer something special. The bicycle works on a mode of simplistic pulleys, and despite what modern technology does to it, it will always be a chain, sprockets, two triangles and wheels, which receive their ability to move solely on the individual initiative that guides this vehicle. Through its simplicity, it is highly revolutionary. It begs to question our car centered oil consuming society if used for that method. As I ride down the road and talk to people along the way I find that there is a different level of connectivity that happens between the bicycle and the earth that simply does not exist with the automobile. You can hear the automobile and its unnatural mechanized sound from miles away if your in the middle of nowhere. This disturbing sound finds itself in contention with the natural world, disturbing the tranquil sounds that the natural world has to offer. The bicycle has a quietness, that is not abrasive in the way that the automobile is. The bicycle moves in harmony with the world surrounding it.
Another observation that gave me great optimism today was the fact of seeing the limits of globalization and realizing that it hasn't quite yet conquered every facet of the human world. In the modern capitalistic state, capital is driven by one sole thing which is profit. Through this process, the cogs of globalization work as well. However, in these areas the profit motive is simply not there because nobody except a few locals live here! Today, because my ride took a route that didn't involve spending much time in the city. What I found was a world that has not been globalized. The towns that I passed were authentic. Each town was different from the one next to it, each had its own flavor and originality that could not be taken. Many of us live in this state of nostalgia about the good ole' days where each town is different. Clearly these are the same individuals who have been consumed by the very things that they complain about. They support the modes of globalization while at the same time wishing to get back to "the good ole' days. We remain in the places where creativity is a lie and thrive, consumed by this disingenuous atmosphere. I am just as guilty of this very thing and it took being this far out in the middle of nowhere for me to realize it. Once you break off the highways, and the routes more traveled, globalization falters and a more straightforward moment arrives.
The bicycle though does offer something special. The bicycle works on a mode of simplistic pulleys, and despite what modern technology does to it, it will always be a chain, sprockets, two triangles and wheels, which receive their ability to move solely on the individual initiative that guides this vehicle. Through its simplicity, it is highly revolutionary. It begs to question our car centered oil consuming society if used for that method. As I ride down the road and talk to people along the way I find that there is a different level of connectivity that happens between the bicycle and the earth that simply does not exist with the automobile. You can hear the automobile and its unnatural mechanized sound from miles away if your in the middle of nowhere. This disturbing sound finds itself in contention with the natural world, disturbing the tranquil sounds that the natural world has to offer. The bicycle has a quietness, that is not abrasive in the way that the automobile is. The bicycle moves in harmony with the world surrounding it.
Another observation that gave me great optimism today was the fact of seeing the limits of globalization and realizing that it hasn't quite yet conquered every facet of the human world. In the modern capitalistic state, capital is driven by one sole thing which is profit. Through this process, the cogs of globalization work as well. However, in these areas the profit motive is simply not there because nobody except a few locals live here! Today, because my ride took a route that didn't involve spending much time in the city. What I found was a world that has not been globalized. The towns that I passed were authentic. Each town was different from the one next to it, each had its own flavor and originality that could not be taken. Many of us live in this state of nostalgia about the good ole' days where each town is different. Clearly these are the same individuals who have been consumed by the very things that they complain about. They support the modes of globalization while at the same time wishing to get back to "the good ole' days. We remain in the places where creativity is a lie and thrive, consumed by this disingenuous atmosphere. I am just as guilty of this very thing and it took being this far out in the middle of nowhere for me to realize it. Once you break off the highways, and the routes more traveled, globalization falters and a more straightforward moment arrives.
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