Experience

Well we're finally getting around to writing. The semester is rolling to a close and summer is quickly approaching. Here is the rough draft, which will undoubtedly undergo many revisions, of what could be the introduction to a book....

The very nature of life is transitory. Life is an experience that we share. It's not that we share it with each other, but that we are each experiencing it. How we choose to experience it determines what we define as life. The pursuit of material goods is an attempt to attain a certain experience. It is a misguided attempt because possesion is an illusion. No one owns anything. This isn't a jab at the banking system or government. This is bigger than finance or government. The existence of matter in the universe is in a constant state of balance. Matter can be neither created nor destroyed. The idea that you have an object and I don't does not mean that I am without the object, or that you possess it. Only that you share a more intimate location to the object than I do. It has to do with a convergence between your space time continum and the objects. The object exists independently of you. The object is never a part of you. The only thing we can own are our own memories which are born of experience. There are false memories that threaten to trivialize and marginalize our true experiences. Visual media is available on such a wide scale that you can see any number of things, from car wrecks to UFO landings. The key is that you don't experience events that you observe.

Experience is what truly shapes us. It is the teacher. Motorcycling, at it's purest, is an experience. This experience is referenced and alluded to, but rarely analyzed. There is more to the experience than "owning" a motorcycle. I can no more own my motorcycle than I can own the road I ride it on. The motorcycle is an independent creature of technology, a union of art and function. The experience that I am talking about, because there are many, is the experience between the earth, the sky, the bike and the rider. This experience is what gave rise to these thoughts and ponderings. Ultimately, I am examining relationships. A relationship between man and machine is no less trivial than that between man and woman or even man and God. The interaction between independent forces all have the same rules. A path walked with God can lend insight to the path walked with a motorcycle, and a path walked with a motorcycle can lend insight to the path walked with women. The company may be different but the concerns are the same...