Play. Seriously.

I began the day riding to work listening to Dr Stuart Brown director of the National Institute for Play. He’s saying this…

“…our capacity as a species to adapt, whether we're in the Arctic or the tropics, the desert or a rain forest, appears to me to be related significantly to our capacity and, as developing creatures, to play.

And then if you look more closely at the human being, you find that the human being really is designed biologically to play throughout the life cycle. And that, and from my standpoint as a clinician, when one really doesn't play at all or very little in adulthood, there are consequences: rigidities, depression, lack of adaptability, no irony — you know, things that are pretty important, that enable us to cope in a world of many demands.”

…and I’m thinking it explains a lot. Read the transcript or download the whole program at this Speaking of Faith radio show website.

At lunch I headed out with The Owner for a reenactment of a ride we used to do regularly. I thought to myself at least once on the ride that I really need new tires for the mountain bike. Toward the end of the ride the sidewall ripped out and the tube blew with a bang.

I put a far to small patch over the hole, we wrapped the tube with a garbage salvaged potato chip bag to hold it all together and I limped to his store ultimately riding six or seven blocks completely flat.

I have new tires now - and lunch – was long - but hey, I had vehicle trouble.

Later that evening I joined a biggish group at the now nationally renowned Monk’s House of Ale Repute. I had one very nice bbq pizza. We headed over to a high school for the FAB Starlight Ride and found our group would be 26 in size for the evening. Wow, that’s a lot of red blinky lights.

One lap around the 20 mile MUP, one more quick stop at Monks, the ride home and I ended the day with 61.9 miles.

To put icing on this already beautiful cake of a day I discovered The MinusCar Project has been written about in a language that is not my own. Ciudad Ciclista writes El proceso personal de abandonar el automóvil. To that I respond - yeah, I think I do.

Google Translate says City Cycling says:

“Our goal is to convert the bike into the dominant vehicle in the city. To achieve this we must promote a culture of cycling as an integral (and integrated) of urban mobility as a vehicle driven by responsible users who have the same duties and same rights as any other vehicle drivers in urban areas, and not as juguetito locked in an apartheid of segregated roads, also called ‘bicycle lanes.’”

I appreciate the mention and I appreciate that similar efforts are occurring in your localities. Thank you.

Ciudad Cicista: No vamos a esperar a nada para usar nuestras bicis indeed.

City Cycling: We will not wait for anything to use our bikes.