Have you ever seen one of those freestyle motocross events where a guy takes off from a steep ramp at high speeds and jumps to ridiculous heights while performing acrobatics and then, in midair, if everything goes as planned, he regains control of the bike and lands safely and gloriously to great adulation? Have you seen any of these? Perhaps, like me, you're not really a fan of such activities, but you've seen them before while switching channels on the television. Have you seen them?
Well, if you've seen them, perhaps you've seen the guys who completely let go of the bike in midair. While jumping they take their hands off the handlebars and their feet off the pedals and their butt off the seat and they fly above their bike, propelled forward with it by the same Newtonian laws of motion. They are completely disconnected from the device on which they depend for a safe landing. This disconnection lasts only for fractions of seconds, and then they reach out and grab the bike, pulling themselves back onto it to prepare for a proper, non-injurious landing. Can you imagine that kind of dependency on another object? Can you imagine letting go of it and then having to get it back? Do you think you'd be able to let go?
Once in a while something goes wrong and the rider realizes he isn't going to get the bike back. When, in those quick, short seconds, he comes to this conclusion, the rider pushes away from the bike in the hopes of minimizing the damage caused by the landing. It will hurt more to land entangled with the bike than it will hurt to hit the dirt alone. So, he thrusts away from the bike as well as he can and tries to land so as to prevent serious harm. Things are going to be bad, but perhaps he can still avoid the worst of it.
Can you picture all of this?
For me, right now, I feel like I'm at the apex of the jump and I've lost the bike. I'm reaching for it, but I can't quite grasp it. It's not where I thought it was, or I'm not where I'm supposed to be, or something. I haven't completely given up hope of finding that handlebar in the next half of a second, but I'm beginning to worry about the landing.
Hello, friends. How are you today? Do you ever feel like this?
Later. Love.
