I think I mentioned in our first class that I was a little bit of a rebel without a clue as a younger man. What I meant by that is that I would often do things that were very harmful to myself and others for no other reason that I can ascertain than to thumb my nose at the world and everything that the "moral majority", as I perceived them, stood for. For example, when I was younger I would drink absurd amounts of alcohol as well as sample any number of illegal substances and then attempt to operate heavy machinery such as automobles. I suppose I should stop right here and say that I am in no way, shape, or form, endorsing this sort of behavior. Quite to the contrary, I now see that behavior as a self destructive tendency based on a misalignment of who I am as opposed to who I thought I wanted to be and was trying to be, or in simplier words I was not being true to myself which in my experience can manifest itself in any number of self destructive forms. One of my drunken escapades ended with me crashing my motorcycle into a stop sign of all things, (do you think the universe was trying to IM me?, I wonder), I awoke in the emergency room where a very young looking surgeon was sewing up my face.

"What happened?"

"You were in a motorcyle accident."

"Oh yeah", I muttered as an ephemeral image of a stop sign flashed in my mind's eye.

"How old are you anyways?", I inquire.

"Why do you ask?"

"You don't look old enough to work on my face. What are you doing?"

"Sewing up your chin, it's gashed to the bone"

Apparently when I hit the stop sign I became a human projectile launched into the air contributing further empirical evidence to all three of Newton's laws of motion, bodies in rest and motion and acceleration and equal and opposite reactions and all that jazz.

So a hundred feet or so of air travel later and I face plant on the asphalt stripping my face of large patches of epidermis as well as dermis and in some cases muscle as well.

Also, they tell me my broken and jagged molars are the result of my jaws snapping together with tremendous force upon impact, fortunate to still have a toungue, then again who knows.

I was discharged after 5 days with a bunch of stitches, road rash, and broken teeth which were fixed up in dozen or so particularly unpleasant dentist visits over that summer.

Anyhow I didn't intend to get into all the gory details I justed wanted to impress upon my readers the severity of the accident as a prelude to my real point. Which is this, I did not own another motorcyle for a long time. While I was still drinking it would have been absolute suicide and as messed up as I was I still didn't want to die.

A few years ago, after not having a drink in a few years, I decided to get me another motorcyle which is the beautiful machine you see above. Some of you maybe cringing at this point, "How could you? Whaddya got a death wish or sumtin?", you may be thinking. What I can tell you is no, I have a life wish. And I rarely feel so alive and so happy to be so as when I'm riding this incredible machine. I know many folks who want to get me on a couch and psychoanalyze the whole dymanic but all I can say to that is "Man, can't it just be fun?" Have you ever gone over the skyway on a motorcyle? I have done it on several occasions and almost invariably I end up channeling the spirit of Karen Carpenter.

Such a feelins comin over me

There is wonder in most everything I see

Not a cloud in the sky

Got the sun in my eyes

And I wont be surprised if its a dream

Everything I want the world to be

Is now coming true especially for me

And the reason is clear

Its because you are here

Youre the nearest thing to heaven that Ive seen

Im on the top of the world lookin down on creation

And the only explanation I can find

Is the love that Ive found ever since youve been around

Your love puts me at the top of the world

Something in the wind has learned my name

And its tellin me that things are not the same

In the leaves on the trees and the touch of the breeze

Theres a pleasin sense of happiness for me

There is only one wish on my mind

When this day is through I hope that I will find

That tomorrow will be just the same for you and me

All I need will be mine if you are here

I actually end up belting this out as loud as I can but the words are ripped from my mouth and dissipate over the entrance to Tampa Bay as I rev 'er up to 75mph and 4500rpm. And I am happy and I am alive and I am one with the universe and I have lost my self to the joy of the experience.

See, I used to think I needed booze or some other substance to enhance the experience of life but what I now see is that life can be pretty damn sweet just the way it is.

And for those of you who still think it madness all I can say is maybe so. But in my defense I avoid the situations that take out most bikers by not drinking and rarely speeding and wearin my helmet a lot of the time (trying to be honest here). I am aware that it is riskier than a car, perhaps more aware than most, but I manage that risk and that's life. You can't live in a bubble, well you could, but that's not hardly livin, is it.