motorcyclemeditation.com

Eighty five miles an hour, long smooth road, two lanes each way, reasonably thick traffic, the motorcycle in its stride and dealing imperiously with pretenders. Jaguars, sundry German stuff, a Maserati, summarily swatted aside. In a while crocodile. Summer evening cruising, aint nothing can beat it.

Signs at the roadside, warnings, beware farm vehicles crossing. Easing off a few mph. One such materializing. Lurching into my lane, the motorcycle nightmare. Time extenuating, movements in slow motion, decisions weighed up as if lazily, brake or swerve or pray. Adrenaline spiking. Swerve to the other lane and you may arrive there at the same time as the tractor, keep the line and you’re in trouble if it goes slow, brake and the car behind may plough into you.

The tractor stopping only a yard into the road, false alarm. Picking a careful way past, heart still pounding and muscles shaky. The remainder of the journey spent getting settled again, at the end, two hours of riding and the thing that took the longest time, those few seconds.

Things to ponder. The slowing down of time clearly having no counterpart in the external world if such there be, merely being what it feels like to an overexcited brain. A brilliant evolutionary response to danger, the brain working faster, amygdala seizing the controls, firing off electrons and suchlike, zinging through cerebral circuits, sparks flying. A movie camera taking more frames per second, much more expensive but much more accurate, it’s only at normal speed that things seem to have taken longer. The power such as to embrace the situation essentials plus more besides, irrelevant lifetime memories flashing by.

On the motorcycle, thinking through the philosophy. That amygdala incident, a more deeply experienced moment, briefly a richly lived life. Ergo, have more of such moments. Except you might not always survive. And it doesn’t feel like your physiology could stand too much of it.

A balance to be found somewhere, dangerous intensity on one hand, on the other, routine and discipline and efficiency. That balance, nowhere better than on a motorcycle to explore it.