"If you worried about falling off the bike, you’d never get on." Lance Armstrong

Let the biking begin! It seems the weather is finally nice enough for all the bikers who travel our street as a thoroughfare to places in southern Minnesota to be out and about in their colorful, Italian looking riding gear on their sleek, light weight bikes. I love watching them in the packs in which they travel….slim, determined, on-the-road to somewhere.

This year they have been joined by another biking group…..a group of 6-10 people on varying sizes of unicycles. Unicycles, the trick bike of circuses, being used as a mode of transportation. It is, I believe, a mind boggling flash of creativity. I have now seen them making their way around the circle of Cherokee Park, dodging traffic…or being dodged. On Friday, even in the light rain that fell, I saw a smaller group huffing up the High Bridge, far above the Mississippi River. What a sight!

These bikers are not outfitted in the matching spandex of their two-wheeled comrades. Instead they wear mismatched helmets, baggier shorts and fleeces, and carry backpacks on their backs.They create a curious sight. Is this a group of students or co-workers who have decided to protest the continually rising gas prices and make a scene on their way from one place to another? Or are they a group of would be parade performers simply honing their craft?

Whatever their intention when I see them I am lifted above the ordinary of my day. The unicycle is such a joyful sight…..a regular human being balancing on one wheel, back straight as a rod, focus on the horizon ahead, moving, moving, moving on. It is a great vision of balance, of determination. As someone who has enough difficulty making her way on a two wheeler, to think of traveling with only one seems nearly impossible.

Riding a bicycle is a wonderful metaphor for how we move in the world. If you’ve ever ridden a tandem bike you know that it requires the give and take, the following and leading,the ability to relinquish control you share in any relationship. It can bring out the best, and the worst, in people. I know this from experience. The two wheeled riders who travel in a pack always remind me of grounded flocks of geese as one rider moves ahead to break the force of the wind for the others, always riding extremely close for safety and companionship.

The unicyclists always seem to carry with them a hint of playfulness and joy, as if at any minute they could strip off their everyday clothes to reveal the clown clothes that lurk beneath. I hope they are having as much fun…..even while pedaling up the steep High Bridge…..as they illicit in me.

What about you? What kind of bike are you riding today? Do you need one wheel or two? Are you able to balance the load of your day while moving forward? Or is today a day when you need the power of someone else pedaling, allowing you to simply be along for the ride?

Whichever it is……remember to wear your helmet.