New Roads
by Titus Gee
I took a different road to work today and rediscovered riding.
It doesn’t seem like it should make that much difference. I take a curvy road through the canyons to work every day. But somehow a different set of curves and speeds and patterns got me grinning, despite the fact it was an hour earlier than usual.
I guess riding, like anything, can start to wear thin with repetition. I used to forget where I was going on the way to work because I was so focused on the ride. Now I think more about whether I’m late and what I have to do at the office — that and trying not to be killed by 50 mph gusts of wind, rain, snow, or moron drivers in SUVs.
When I hit Bouquet Canyon at 7 a.m., almost nobody was out there. I couldn’t take it as fast on the less familiar road but it snapped my brain into high gear. Feeling my way through every curve brought back the old rush. I wasn’t getting to work, I was cutting lines, dodging holes, and reveling in the wind.
Guess that’s why riding becomes a quest for some people, drawing them ever onward to further, curvier, crazier roads all over the world.
Each fresh route offers a fresh glimpse of life, a new perspective on the wordless wonder of taking the road on two wheels. I think that same principle is what drives me to creativity and art. Every story, every project, film, photo, video, or print edition comes with a unique challenge. Sure, after a while you get comfortable with the tools, but that only increases your options. Experience builds upon itself enabling greater, broader, and more interesting experience.
Each new challenge cuts through the layers of familiarity and draws fresh blood until, like an addict, I crave the fresh experience, the new creation or collaboration or medium. It drives me forward with the promise that, if only I will sacrifice to get there, I can breathe the clean air of freedom and see an ever-new reality.
I got stuck, a while back, stuck in the pattern that makes life easier, but sucks the revelation out of living.
Then I took a new road to work and, well, “That has made all the difference.”
