Last Monday the instructor
of my spinning class showed a video of a bike race in the Netherlands (Amstel Gold Race
2015) as we rode our stationary bikes hard enough to reach our
maximum heart-rate zone.
In no other circumstance would I watch
a bike race for forty minutes. But pedaling and perspiring along with
my fellow exercisers, I was exhilarated by the energy and grace of the
cyclists and the beauty of the countryside on the
screen. Sometimes we got an aerial view of farmland with fields looking
like pieces of a patchwork quilt in various shades of green. Then down
one of these country roads snaked a row of bicyclists racing to the
finish line. I suppose I could feel those racers a pathetic contrast to my
stationary machine, but I didn't. I felt motivated and moved by their
perfection.
And for some reason, I stared thinking
of the layers of human life present in that moment on my bicycle,
connection present in every other moment as well.
This connective web contained the
instructor and cyclists; our bikes and everything involved in
