Nowtopian

My first night in Austin after the 100 degrees cooled off a bit, we had a beautiful ride organized by Ride Bikes Austin… went along the Colorado River and saw the bats!

I’ve fallen in inconsequential ways a few times in my bicycling life. I was doored once but didn’t fall, and nearly doored a dozen times, always escaping by the skin of my (lucky) teeth. Somehow it was in Austin, Texas, on a blazing 103-degree Saturday afternoon, rolling along at 7 mph on a wide, flat dirt path along the river, looking everywhere but in front of me, that I found myself plunging into a small but real drainage ditch. The front wheel was mangled, and I flew into the handlebars and smashed into the ground. I got up scraped and seeing stars for a moment, the 4th finger on my left hand weirdly bent at the top knuckle, and felt a sharp pain in my chest. Broken rib? Cracked sternum?

That invisible ditch, highlighted in box at left, is what got me… I can’t believe it!

Not wanting to risk a $35,000 ER bill from a Texas hospital I went back to my friends’ place and decided to fly home early the next morning. Adriana took me from the airport directly to the Kaiser ER, where xrays and EKG and a full exam concluded that I had nothing broken, no heart or lung problems, but a bad chest contusion, and “mallet finger.” Tomorrow I’ll get some more medical attention for my finger, which is really inhibiting my ability to type this, or to continue my steady pace of writing my new novel (which is why I’ve not been blogging for a while). So I had a real wreck! Dammit!

This past weekend I was invited to come to Austin by Raquel Ortega and Nona Allen of Ride Bikes Austin and the resuscitated Critical Mass there, who also gave me their couch and arranged a bicycle from the Austin Yellow Bike Project (thank you Pete and Dot!). It was a sweet experience, great to see Austin, albeit in an oddly fragmented (and very brief) way. I met a bunch of lovely folks on the two rides, Thursday and Friday evenings.

Lots of new bike paths that I got to sample a bit of during the two nights I got to ride… missed out on a third night due to my crash.

I have to say, I’m a bit surprised to have my peripatetic “Critical Mass diplomat” role suddenly come back to life. Maybe it’s because this is the 30th anniversary year, but there has been a notable uptick in attention and people reaching out to me, from Texas to Porto Alegre, Brazil, to major press outlets in Germany. Doesn’t alter the basic reality that here in San Francisco bicycling culture is almost kaput. Still lots of cyclists but no particular culture that foregrounds bicycling as a political or even important social choice. I’ve accepted that for years now.

But I’d say we did our part in shifting sensibilities, in permanently altering what passes for common sense. Whether or not most people choose to bicycle as their main mode of urban transportation is not so crucial—that probably won’t happen until there really are no easier alternatives—which may never come to pass. That’s ok. I know there are plenty of cyclist activists who are true believers—crusaders if you will—for their preference as the correct choice. I’ve never been there. I prefer to use a bicycle to get around. It’s easier and quicker and more pleasurable AND efficient FOR ME. And for many others. But not for everyone—of course!

That’s Raquel Ortega behind me, and Nona Allen just to the left with the banner. Lovely hosts!

I would argue Critical Mass and Occupy and a variety of other social movements have importantly contributed to deeper contemporary change at a basic philosophical—even, perhaps epistemological—level. As evidence, I was struck while passing through the airport to see these books facing out from the bookshop there. I left the interesting ones in color to help identify them.

Books in color correspond to some of the ones cited below, but all are evidence of a shifting paradigm in our culture.

I finally read Braiding Sweetgrass a couple of months ago, and as all accounts have it, it’s a beautiful book—deep, soulful, inspiring, wise. Suzanne Simard’s book on the Mother Tree is there too, as is Michael Pollan’s latest on changing your mind with drugs. Further up are several books on the largely overlooked wonders of the deep oceans (which in a horrifying near future scenario, may be subject to a kind of ocean floor strip-mining!) and animal subjectivity and intelligence. Some of this new sensibility is rooted in a growing awareness of the fundamental intelligence of every aspect of the world around us, even things we’ve deemed inanimate. David Abram has written two excellent books that advance a scientifically aware and rationally based argument for animacy. A more broad return to indigenous sensibilities underlies a good deal of these new (old) ways of approaching life on earth. Here is a run of my favorite passages from a bunch of books I read in the past months, including some of the ones just mentioned.

Continue reading Still Reckless, No Longer Wreckless!