Life Cycles

So the journey starts, and we start the coasting along - kids on a beginner unicycle with Mom and Pop on either side, human balancers. We find other people to unicycle with, and unscrew Mom and Pop. Sometimes it's easy; sometime it isn't. It all depends on the country that manufactured the unicycle's balancers. At the end of the day though, the balancers have to go. And then we wobble along, slowly, a little unsurely, the freedom almost overwhelming, picking up speed, exulting.

It can't always be bicycles (somewhere along the way we all switch to a bicycle) and butterflies and wonderful smooth roads. College happens, the road gets bumpy, the terrain changes and you realize you need more than a unicycle. Enter the mountain bike, built for offroads, rough races, ten-speeds. It's no-nonsense. Means business. Gets you over life's mountains and the valleys and the plains, and the unexplainable ditches in between.

Maybe the scenery is breathtaking when we first pass it by; maybe it's amazing and unforgettable. Inevitably, as with everything, monotony sets in. It's dull; it's boring. It's everyday. Worst of all, it's exhausting. Sometimes we all just get off our mountain bikes, stare at the scenery, and try not to think about the whole rat race. Some forsake the mountain bikes and throw themselves off cliffs. Some decide not to bike at all. Most of us bike along listlessly, churning.

This is where we realize it's better to share the biking - could the dual-bicycle work? Can it be better than just being all by ourselves? We throw ourselves on the dual-bicycle; eagerly looking for partners, each one better than the last. We ourselves are the same victims of our own crafting; victims of the dual-bicyle partnering system. Cast aside, rejected. Always looking for someone else to pedal with into the sunset.

Sometimes we win, and find the perfect partner and we all pedal off into the sunset of our lives. Sometimes we don't, and we pedal off, ultimately alone. Sometimes we make do, and find our friends to end the race with.

Growing up is a lonely, scary trip down a road that goes ever on and on, with the final destination being death. No one wants to walk that road alone. Not really.