Encounters on two wheels

Before you judge somebody, you should walk a mile in their shoes.

How about riding a few miles on their bicycle instead?

On this magnificently balmy day, I'd left the lab at promptly 5:00 to enjoy the weather before sunset.  Whilst pedaling easily back from a few blasts up Chapel Hill, a lean fellow on a shiny bicycle sped past me.  I soon caught up with him, where he'd paused to fill a tupperware box with fresh blackberries off the copious bushes that bordered the country road.

He looked up as I passed and shouted a greeting, so I slowed down to say hello.

"I'm sorry for passing so aggressively, but I'd seen a cyclist in the distance, and was enjoying my new bike so I just had to try to sprint and overtake," he apologised.

Amused and slightly abashed at having been overtaken on the road, I mumbled something about how I was just relaxing after doing some hill repeats.

"Isn't that a fixed gear?" he asked.

We got to chatting comfortably, while picking the tasty blackberries and enjoying the evening glow of a sun that's not visited Britain nearly enough this summer.  He introduced himself as Miles, and was commuting home from his technical consulting job in one of the villages.

He asked if I was Canadian (eh?  well, close enough) and what I do, and I found myself saying that I'm a journalist, and am in Cambridge to do a PhD. 

My answer is usually "I'm a PhD student in geophysics, and I do some work as a journalist."

But on my bike, out for a ride after work simply to go play outdoors, independent on a simple machine that I know how to repair, brings me to the most natural and peaceful condition that I can imagine. So I said what came into my head first.

We  finished our blackberries and pedaled toward Cambridge together, falling into the pleasant on-the-road discussion which weaves from one topic to the next; from a story in Nature about volcanism, to the tools required to change a bottom bracket, to why people should or should not get PhD if they want to work in industry.  The type of discussion that transforms cycling from a sacred solo activity into a glorious shared experience.

As we turned onto Barton Road, Miles asked if he could try out my fixed gear bike. Pleased by the spontaneity, I accepted.  If he did run off with it, at least I'd have his sexy Campagnolo-bedecked ride as compensation. So we swapped steeds for the last few miles back to town.

After we got back on our own bikes, exchanged email addresses, and parted ways at Lensfield Road, I couldn't imagine a nicer end to the week.

I met a new person and we did quite literally "walk a mile in each other's shoes." Maybe we both got acquainted with a facet of the other that's not what would first have been apparent upon a more traditional encounter.

Only 100 years ago

How's this for perspective:

The Northwest Passage was first successfully navigated in 1906.  That's barely 100 years ago.

I bet they didn't give a damn about Arctic sea ice loss back then.

In fact, they'd probably have been thrilled by the concept.  Much smoother sailing going without it.

Roald Amundsen's ship frozen in sea ice.  Photo from Wikipedia, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Belgica_schiff.jpg