The Mysticism of cycling

I have always loved riding bicycles. They represent a sort of freedom. Not having been a great athlete, cycling was perfect for me because when you get tired you can coast for a bit before thunking on the pedals again. As a kid we spent about half our lives on bicycles. We explored, raced and even played huge community wide games of team freeze tag. Imagine 20 kids on bikes screaming down alleys or over the hills of the school grounds. It must have been awful for adults, but this was the 1950's and we were benign savages for the most part.

Having given up cycling in college, I returned to it a few years later from necessity. I needed to get to a job and we had only 1 car. The bike became my transportation again. And it was great. Since it did not really matter how I looked at work I could ride rain or shine. We moved to a rural area and the bike became a way to drench myself in the beauty of the area. I developed as a distance rider, stretching my stamina by riding further and further for longer and longer periods of time. It was then that cycling became an avenue for that sort of uplift that sages call mystical.

Mysticism is the experience of unity with something greater, usually God. But the mystic experience can ground itself just about anywhere. Mine was in the riding, because at the speed of bike I had the time to notice the world in much greater detail. When my body was pushed by the length of the ride I would suddenly find myself sensually immersed in the surroundings with my consciousness unfocused and just a little outside my body.

I remember the day in Chicago when I was do a 50 mile ride, which was long for me at the time. A thunderstorm came up but I kept riding. People were running for shelters and I would have too, except that I was already soaked to the bone. So I just kept riding. It rained so hard and in some places was so blinding, that I became just a current in the downpour. I could scream and hoot and no one could hear or care. I rode for an hour like that, transported by the thunder and lightning and drenching downpour. It was an incredible feeling and cemented me back to my bicycling.