I agree with the rest of you that John's accident and subsequent withdrawal from the list is a real downer. (One of the few depressing things about an otherwise promising and exciting spring.)
The circumstances surrounding his accident has given all of us cause consider our riding habits. I can understand his wife's refusal to allow him to continue riding a motorcycle. She has been through as much emotional grief as John has physical trauma.
But there is something related to this that I need to get off my chest. While everyone agrees that motorcycling is inherently risky in some respects, it is also easy to lose prospective about our "reckless hobby". Everything in life involves risk. As a minister, I have seen death occur in multiple situations that may seem unreal unless you experience them firsthand or upclose. I have personally known numerous pedestrians who were killed simply because they walked on the sidewalk or crossed an intersection when the "walk" told them it was safe to do so. I have known a dozen people on bicycles who were killed or injured simply because they preferred to peddle to their destinations -- I was struck myself on my mountain bike. I have been aquatinted with 60 plus people who were killed or seriously injured riding in "safe" cars -- in fact, the two times in my own life that I came closest to death was while riding in four wheeled vehicles. I could go on and discuss those who were seriously injured or killed in while hunting, falling from trees/roofs, having minor surgery, giving birth, or falling down stairs.
My point is this -- it REALLY disturbs me when people criticize me for riding a motorcycle. They claim that I am acting foolishly and a few think that I have a death wish. While I cannot deny that riding a motorcycle can be risky, I wonder why they rarely worry when I get behind the wheel of a car or walk down the sidewalk for an evening stroll. I'm tempted to tell them the names of people I know who were killed when they did these "safe" things, but even if I did I seriously doubt that they would advise me to quit driving or walking.
Its as if getting killed in a car or during a walk is acceptable but getting killed on a motorcycle is different. Is it really??? When you're blood empties, your heart stops or your lungs deflate, it matters little whether you are behind a wheel, on the sidewalk, or crushed beside your motorcycle. No death is pleasant and a bereaved spouse or child does not experience less pain because you died behind a wheel instead of over handlebars.
Bottom line -- this world is dangerous! Every choice involves risk! And most people actually throw caution into the wind on a daily basis, whether they admit it or not! For instance, when people tell me how dangerous it is to ride a motorcycle, I ask them if they wear a helmet when they get in their car. After all, using helmets in cars would save many thousands of lives annually! In fact, if people wore helmets, leathers, chaps and boots in cars, they would stand a far better chance of surviving serious accidents.
But people say that it would be unreasonable...inconvenient ... and then they call me suicidal for riding a motorcycle? It's all a matter of perspective. Unfortunately, many people lose perspective when they consider motorcyclists.
OK, OK -- sermon about over. If anyone is curious as to why my wife allows me to ride, it is the same reason she allows me to drive. As I indicated earlier, the closest I have come to death (on at least two occasions) was behind a steering wheel. She has come to understand that she has no more business forbidding me to ride a bike than to drive my car. I tell her to pray for me which ever I use! Lest we forget, whenever we get behind the wheel or over the bars, we have the same mortality risk level of someone on night patrol in Vietnam 30 years ago.
And for those who maintain that riding in a car cannot be compared because riding in a car is not an option these days -- I beg to differ. A friend of mine in Anaheim California has not ridden in a car for 22 years, to the best of my knowledge. Last I heard, he was a supervisor for a security firm and walked 2 miles each way to work. In 1976, he was involved in a head-on collision, along with his wife and two children. His wife and one child were killed instantly. The other child died three days later. He didn't find out for almost two months, as he was in a coma. He broke multiple bones and could not walk for nine months afterwards. Other than a pronounced limp and numerous scars, he made a phenomenal recovery. But he vowed never again enter a four wheeled vehicle. "A car murdered my family and tried to take me!"
Let's do our best to ride and drive and walk and bicycle and climb trees safely. And though I have never received a scratch while riding motorcycles for 25 years, I may be dead or paralyzed before this day is done. And if it occurs while riding my PC800, please don't automatically decide that you had better hang up your helmet. It could as easily have happened in my car or as I take my evening walk or visit my son at school! Don't lose perspective.
May God help and bless us all! (After all, He sent Jesus to get us ready for the end!)
