Joyride

Meet Mia Birk, founder and CEO of Alta Planning and Design. I stumbled across Mia's book Joyride in Amazon.com and love it!Very cool! 

Keeping Moving

This image and quote from Einstein remind me to keep moving, keep biking, keep on keepin on. The weather has been so cold the past few days that I am tempted to slow down, grow sluggish and quit being very active (or retreat entirely to the gym). Let it not be!  If Dervla Murphy can bike with icicles on her nose, then I can easily ride in 25 degree weather. If you don't know who Dervla Murphy is, then you are missing out. The woman knows how to live life---her book Full Tilt is a cycling/traveling classic--her depiction of a 1963 Afghanistan is worth the price of the book alone.


Ride on People!

The Great Energy Equalizer: The Bicycle

“Bicycles let people move with greater speed without taking up significant amounts of scarce space, energy or time. They can spend fewer hours on each mile and still travel more miles in a year. They can get the benefit of technological breakthroughs without putting undue claims on the schedules, energy or space of others. They become masters of their own movements without blocking those of their fellows. Their new tool creates only those demands which it can also satisfy. Every increase in motorized speed creates new demands on space and time. The use of the bicycle is self-limiting. It allows people to create a new relationship between their life-space and their life-time, between their territory and the pulse of being, without destroying their inherited balance”  Ivan Illich, Energy and Equity, 1973

Car-centricity and Christmas

In the film What Would Jesus Buy the other night, Judith Levine, author of Not Buying It: My Year Without Shopping, is interviewed and makes some interesting remarks that intersect the U.S. obsession with shopping and car culture. 

In WWJB, Levine states: "There are many places in America where there are no sidewalks. What does this say about us? It says that we have to be either in our cars or in our house....or in the mall. There are only commercial spaces in almost all of America.... or private spaces. You are either trespassing, or you are buying."

I am always amazed during Christmas by how car-centric the holiday is. It is not that shopping requires a car, but that people seem hardwired in the U.S. to view navigating from point A to point B as car-necessary no matter how small the distance (statistics show that 40% of urban travel in the U.S. occurs within 2 miles). Then they complain about the cost of gym memberships, obesity, and the inevitable weight gain during the holidays. Even holiday activities are geared towards car-culture rather than an activities that are, well, active. At least in Copenhagen they are finding ways to be active during the holidaze. :-D

Ride on people!

What Would Jesus Buy?

I don't agree with all of Reverend Billy's ideas about religion but I feel he uses the iconic street preacher effect to good use in a satirical look at the cult of buying in North America. The film What Would Jesus Buy is funny, engaging, and thought-provoking. It really examines the Christmas Season as it has been co-opted by Big Business, Big Banking (read: massive credit card debt) and even in some ways Religion, and encourages the idea that "you don't have to buy a gift to give a gift". 


Amen.

The Joy of Giving

The Christmas Season is one of my favorite times of the year---the spiritual aspect of the season the crisp air, Christmas decorations, hot coco, and time with family. One of my chief pleasures though is gift giving. However, I agree with Rev Billy on this one who says, "You don't have to buy a gift to give a gift" which is so true!

However, I do enjoy giving to people in this world who don't have much to begin with and who struggle to meet their daily needs. Through World Vision I give a bicycle for a girl each year so that she can get to school safely as well as do things for her family. Given how much most of us in North America spend on bike gear each year, this is a small expense that makes a HUGE difference in someone's life. 

Ride on people!