Cardio commuting to town via the Lower Oldham Trail. bicycles are 80% energy efficient; only 20% of any caloric energy used in bicycling goes to move the bike. everything else is used to MOVE! on race bikes, the stats are even better! photo by Ananda.
***
Live like a tree,
not like fire.
***
as a New Daddy Warrior, there are a whole lot of environmental issues tearing at my spiritual tissues these days...watching my cherished zen-influenced spartan lifestyle begin bulging at the seams is an exercise of WF Lifestyle Principle #1 for sure.
i'm constantly breathing and asking for Mother Earth/Father Sky forgiveness as i run enough water through my faucet to float a boat as i wash baby bottles. that's just the start.
one of the most searing stabs at my increase upon Mothers' resources comes from my near lack of a principle of WF that i first began forwarding as far back as the early eighties; Cardio Commuting.
granted, i am doing about 90% of my New Daddy Warrior errands on my motorcycle (and my POWERBAR backpack has literally split its seams and zippers as i push the limits on the poor thing's carrying capacity nearly each day).
as i whiz past all my Cardio Commuting bros and sista's here in Flag (which is a bicycle-commuting mecca) i wince as i throttle my sport bike into a corner instead of pedaling into it as i was once so accustomed.
then...then arrives the odd day where ilg is forced into a car.
oooof.
cars.
our cars outweigh us by at least 20 to 1. a Pruis weighs 2,900 lbs and a Suburban loads the roads at 5k+!
that means nearly 95% (yes...95%!!!) of the precious Dinosaur flesh and blood is being used to simply MOVE THE VEHICLE.
in what other human enterprise would we settle for 95% INEFFICIENCY!?!?
a bicycle, by contrast, weighs often less than one-fifth of what you do.
less than 20% of the energy goes to moving the vehicle.
contemplate this as we clamber out of the car to fill up our tanks at even the
now archaic price of $4/gallon: $3.80 is simply feeding the machine.
sobering facts as i prepare to move my Clan out to the country where an additional 10 miles per round trip to town will spiritually itch at me each time ilg is forced into a car. upside? this winter (which is when ilg actually drives cars), i'll be reducing my drives to the ski areas in significant volumes and relying on my own nordic/snowshoe courses in my back and front 'yards'.
all of this is an ongoing exercise in WF Lifestyle Principle Number 3: Appropriate Action.
May this DL inspire all my WF Warriors to bike twice, drive once.
i do my best...that's all i can do...or you.
Live like a tree, not like fire.
love,
your mountain yogi
special thanks to Flag bro; Peter Kosso
photo 2: one of my most cherished Tree Beings in the Kachina Peaks Wilderness. this delightfully spiraled Tree Being is located on the Bismark Lake Trail.
photo 2: Oak Creek Canyon, a dozen miles away, up in flames last year. photo by AZ Daily Sun.
photo 3: bike vs. Bala...an ongoing choice which steepens as a New Daddy Warrior! photo by Ananda
