Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

. . . “Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal.” It might also be said that a city becomes extra-cityish, more seething and carnivalesque, from the vantage point of a bicycle. Danger is a sensory intensifier, supercharging the scenery, making everything appear volatile and alive.

— Jody Rosen / Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle

Jan.22.2022
The sky is crooked at my feet. I’m tired
of someone else’s dying. I’ve lost two
pounds because I’ve been chewing rain instead
of swallowing it.

— Victoria Chang / “Today”

. . . and perhaps most importantly, our impending doom leaves us feeling paralysed. If we’re already screwed, then what’s the point in trying? Far from making us more effective in driving change, it robs us of any motivation to do so. I recognise this from my own dark period when I nearly walked away from the field entirely. I can assure you that after reframing how I saw the world, I have had a much, much bigger impact on changing things. When it comes down to it, doomsday attitudes are often no better than denial.

— Hannah Ritchie / Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet

I understand:
for years, perhaps, you have lived
underground. Handling only
darkness, you have not become
accustomed to it. You want to get out.

— Everette Maddox / “Welcome Home”

A bicycle in traffic must be predictive to the point of clairvoyance, must know the cars better than the cars know themselves, must understand their motivations and their common blunders. Cars don’t always signal their intentions. And cars aren’t always nice to each other, though they usually show each other some respect in deference to the damage they can do to each other. They are like important men in conversation with other important men. Bicycles are sometimes kindly accommodated by cars, often ignored, occasionally respected, sometimes nervously followed, and frequently not even seen. In this sense, riding in traffic is not unlike being a woman among men.

— Eula Biss / Having and Being Had

But in spite of these riders who prize the utility of two wheels above its art, riding a bicycle is one of the few street activities that can still be thought of as an end in itself. The person who distinguishes himself from that purposeful crowd by conceiving of it as such should be call a cycleur. And that person – who has discovered cycling to be an occupation with no interest in ultimate outcomes – knows he possesses a strange freedom which can only be compared with that of thinking or writing.

— Valeria Luiselli / Sidewalks

But for those of us who have bicycling in our bones, the arguments against it are worse. Bike riding can kill you, but to trudge through your days without biking-that’s no way to live.

— Jody Rosen / Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle

What I’m Listening To:

Send in the clowns
Send in the army
You want to be American
Get your gun
You’re so free
You can shoot me

— Kim Gordon / “It’s Dark Inside”