A reminder to ALWAYS check your blind spot

[pbbeck]

Check out this video. I was shocked at first, but on slow replay it's clear that the moto changed lanes without checking his blind spot.

 

Warning: not easy to watch!

 

[Firefight911]

That's not gonna rub off easily!

 

Ouch! Good post to remind us that it is not always the cage!!!!

[Blake]

HOLY SNYKEES!! You ain't kidding it wasn't easy to watch!

 

I'm not condoning what the rider did, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a bit of rubber necking going on there too.

 

And MAJOR kudos to the driver in the SUV who went the distance and stopped half way up the hill to help, presumably where the rider ended up (a.k.a. - stopped sliding / skidding).

 

Ya know, I don't claim to be perfect (ok, just nearly ), but I've made it a rule now to ALWAYS turn my head, even if it has to be like lightning in case of a sticky situation.

 

Hey, just do it - the life you save may be your own!

[stu650]

The rider came away with only a few bruises, and puts his lucky escape down to the gear he was wearing.

 

The police have now issued the video to show how wearing ATGATT can save a motorcyclist from serious injury.

[GelStra]

Somebody help explain this one. I may be missing something, but it sure seems to me as if the guy simply got creamed from behind by the car. I couldn't tell, but did he change into that lane unexpectedly, causing the car to hit him? Whatever happened, OUCH!

[BMT]

Full Plymouth Evening Herald report is here and a follow-up story in the following day's edition here.

[Baba_ORiley]

It helps to remember that the incident occurred in the UK where the left lane of a dual carriageway (4 lane highway) is the slow lane, and right lane in the same direction of travel is the overtaking (passing), or fast lane.

 

I've driven a lot in the UK, and I can tell you that unlike in the US, lane discipline is religiously observed there, (i.e. you don't pass another vehicle unless you are in the proper lane to do) meaning no passing on the left (equivalent to no passing on the right on US highways).

 

So the motorcyclist was in the fast lane moving into the slow lane. The vehicle that hit him should not have been moving at any speed greater than the flow of traffic, (which, of course included the motorcycle), that was in the fast lane to the right. It's clear from the video that the vehicle that hit the motorcycle was moving much faster than the traffic in the fast lane.

 

 

.

[Davis]

I've looked at this video a couple of times and can't find any evidence that the motorcycle changed lanes. Even going frame by frame when the motorcycle first enters the shot it is in the left lane (albeit in the right side of the left lane) and in the frames prior to that the shadow shows him to be in the left lane. From the story it sounds as though all he did was slow to move left into the stopped lane, which is all I can see in the video. All of those who see a lane change, what evidence and where do you see that?

[BMT]

There is more information in the newspaper reports that I linked to, above: he was making a last-minute move into the lay-by (stopping area) to report (to the officers in the parked police car) an incident he had seen on the other carriageway. He crossed from lane 2 to lane 1 and was then moving left to stop.

 

There has been widespread discussion on various UK boards about the incident. Although the police report says that he did nothing wrong, the general concensus is that he made a very optimistic move and didn't get away with it. No charges have been brought against him, but one wonders who is going to foot the repair bill for the car that hit him. Someone's insurance is going to cost more next year. I wouldn't be very pleased if it had been me driving the car.

[AviP]

Rider error definitely. He should consider himself lucky, he wasn't run over.

[Mark_Turner]

Rider error? He got hit in the rear, driver failure to keep clear distance as far as I can see it.

[rdfrantz]

Folks, I've come away from this discussion about this kind of event with a quite different perspective than what I'm reading. I admit that before reading this thread I have had a policy about Riding in place that covers or relates to this kind of thing, that perhaps could be acting as, and perhaps rightfully called, a "pre-defined idea", or even a prejudice, that could be at work in getting me to hold onto that view and keep it seeming more important, or at least as important, as what others might think and express. So, if you see something I'm "missing", or devaluing in your eyes, or something like that, I'd really appreciate hearing about it so I can better meet my need for understanding.

 

 

 

First, I consider that a person should be aware they are, and not just in a blithe sense, "Responsible for their own state or condition, and what happens to bring that about.": There's a profound importance to me in understanding that quite fully. My view of the importance of that perhaps culminates thusly: I've come to see that perhaps our most powerful expression of that is, "We're the last ditch force or proponent of our own wellbeing."

 

That view holds that, in the general comings and going of life, the acts of others are virtually never primarily motivated toward maintaining or assisting our personal view of how we want things to remain, or to turn out - whether in either a subjective or objective sense those things are highly important or not. And, it follows therefrom, that the more important a state or condition is to us, the more importance we should be placing on our own cause in efforts and actions in service of our desires, rather than rely upon the Good Grace we hope lays within all the motivations that have others doing things in concert with us (like riding together on a road): In any given moment, they don't care all that much about what we ourselves are wanting and needing... so if its something really important to us, we ourselves had better mobilize our own resources on our behalf.

 

The point about "last ditch 'defense'" folds into this because of the Mutuality, and Shared Cause present in "social actions" like sharing use of our roads. Before we enter a roadway, there already are folks out there being Cause. They are being cause in service of the their own wants and neeeds. We are adding our wants and needs to that mix; We are adding our own 'causes' to that mix - Our own motivations, perceptions, conclusions, decisions, and actions, which produce effects. Those effects then bring about a change in the mix of 'how it is' and thus become... Consequent Cause: There is abuilding in our Ride a stream or subsequent cause-effect-cause-effect-cause... etc.

 

The point I'd have us understand about that is, as an Effect Stream (Look upon it as a 'beam' for a moment) begins to reach us, we have the opportunity to: Perceive it's coming; Consider and gauge its possible effect upon us; Decide whether we'll allow that to reach us in a passive or active state (Choice), and then to act passively or actively in response. We're the last she/he who has the opportunity, the potential Choice... to keep our wellbeing intact.

 

I have found its quite possible to exert a degree of control over other road users (i.e. cause some effect upon them - hopefully in ways that bring positvie effects, or effect streams, toward both of us). However, it profoundly seems that's a minority control. Their bulk of their own motivatins are still aimed at their own individual wants and needs far more stridently than toward mine. The upshot is that even wholly absent any rancor toward me, that freaking steamroller of cars four wide, twelve deep on the freeway is headed "that" way, whether "that" is what I'm wanting and needing or not. It would behoove me to: Get into this 'game'; Understand it is a 'game', and what is this 'game'; Remain active in this 'game' - By formulating and making Choices on my own behalf... that don't screw the game up in ways that get several or all of us in 'losing states'. I gotta keep my head out of my...

 

And, I'm the last guy who can to that - on my own behalf - in any case.

 

Those who study Philosophy, rather than "Just Do It", might recognize in what I've written, a Systemization, one in service of producing A (solitary but Integral) Logic. It's kind of a creation of "a fundamental 'ground'" on which many things might lay. It doesn't have any neaning in itself, though I did relate it to stuff we might share an understanding of so it would be more clear. You-all might actually find oodles and oodles of ways to apply those principles to other things in your life than 'changing lanes into disaster' like the subject rider of this thread did. It's 'Sh** to think with'.

 

Here's how I think it applies to the subject of this thread: A dumb-ass move that brought tragedy.

 

 

 

What freaking "Blind Spot??????!!!!!!"

 

The physical world is gonna have one or many Blind Spots - in it. But that doesn't mean I'm forced to Choose to have a blind spot in My own world!!!!!

 

I have the Choice to operate 'in a world of awareness of', a reality, of what is making up the part of the physical world I'm operating in - in service of my own and other's wants and needs. I have Choice to 'be aware', and in such a way there is no blind spot - no spot from which a wanted or unwanted effect might unknowingly eminate. I can get to be, and then remain Aware. I can Choose to do that.

 

Yeah, there's this thing called Spatial Awareness. But, understand, that starts with empty space; What's important is... what's going on within that space. We are served by, first, creating awareness of the space we're operating in, and then, second, looking in/through/among that space, and finding 'potential causes', all them cars with guys and gals in them each that have their own motivations and wants and needs... that are going this way and are likely to send Effect Streams over here in this piece of 'The Space' where I am... operating in the service of 'getting me to Cleveland in a certain state or condition'.

 

That's Getting Aware(ness). And, Responsible, by the way.

 

Now, to Maintain Awareness, we can exercise Choice and continue to scan that Space on a regualar and ongoing basis. That's staying Responsible (able to potentially respond), by the way.

 

When I make the Choice to do that, I stand a much better chance of making other Choices that get me to 'My Cleveland' in the desired state and condition I'm after, than if I make some other Choice.

 

That's because I now have sound and current data and information to base those Operating Choices upon.

 

 

 

Some of my friends tell me they think I do well at threading my way through traffic or on down curvey roads. Some tell me they grasp part of the reason behind that is the understanding I have gained of the factors that affect doing those things. We love to share our individual understanding - produce mutual understanding - and then to organize those things into "pertinences" we all can use to help us toward Riding Better.

 

However, some tell me they also grasp the level of my Riding stems from my staying aware of those factors I grasp that affect that process: Geting And Then Staying Aware of The Factors. They'd like to do that too, but they find that while they do have that awareness, or start off with that awareness, it wanes or fades, and almost always disappears in the course of their Ride. I've always wanted to share with them the ansnwer to, "So, how to you do that, Dick? How do you sustain that helpful awareness?", and do so in a way or ways that truly bring help. In the past I've tried and not done as good a job of it as I've wanted.

 

When I looked over what happend with the Rider in the subject post of this thread, I felt afraid. It wasn't a big error that was made which could have prevented that outcome - It was just a small one. The more I thought about that outcome the more I felt terror wash over me: What if that were a friend of mine? What if that were me? What if that were... anybody?

 

Can't something be done about that error to help meet my needs for physical and emotional wellbeing, for Fun, for accomplishment? Do my fears have to come true? Or, do I have a Choice? Do I have a Choice to try once again to express the importance of, and in fact the ease of, doing something that might prevent that tragic outcome - and many others?

 

In searching for a way to do that, I recalled something that happened in a counseling group I was facilitating. A person shared with me they knew what to do in a situation but they sometimes got "muscle bound" by a fear of failing at it when they started off to actually do that. Or, that in the midst of doing that thing they'd experience some fear and be distracted from doing the good job they really wanted to do.

 

I said, "Essentially, it seems to me you're presenting that old conumdrum, 'How do I keep from thinking about Pink Elephants?'"

 

To spare you all from certain agony, the answer is, "Think about something else."

 

I coninued that I'd like to share something I discovered about that with them if they were willing. It's kind of meditation. Virtually all meditations are a focusing of Attention - and thus Awareness.

 

Decide to set aside five minutes of your life in service of gaining more control over it and more enjoyment from it.

 

Sit or lay comfortably and quietly with your eyes closed.

 

Decide, for those five minutes, to pay attention to only your breathing.

 

Yeah. Just pay attention to only your breathing, and not to other things.

 

Grasp 'your breathing', comprehend it, be aware of it, however you like. You might feel the air passing through your nostrils, or notice the rise and fall of your chest or constriction and relaxation of your diaphram. You might be aware of your breathing because of a 'rush' of feeling throughout your body of the rhythm as oxygen reaches tissues, or a relief as carbon dioxide is pressed out of it through the lungs. Any way is just fine. But, just notice that, whatever 'that' is for you, whatever is your own awareness of your breathing. Just be aware of that. Let paying attention to your breathing be the important thing you are doing.

 

Perhaps as you do that you'll also become aware of something else, something other than your breathing. Well, OK. But, just notice that. Notice, "I've become aware of X." Perhaps, "I hear the sound of the air conditioner in the background". Or, "I feel pressure in my leg on the seat".

 

Just notice that. Perhaps, just say to yourself, "Hmmmmp. I notice that", and turn your attention back to your breathing. Notice your breathing, however you grasp that.

 

If you find you're thinking about something, well, notice that too, much as you did a physical sensation. No need to 'get into' thinking that thing: Just notice it. "Hmmmm. THAT is a thought", and return your attention to your breathing.

 

We don't need to get involved in it - stoutly throwing our attenion into or toward it.

 

We don't need to get into recriminations about its presence - it is present, and not more. We don't need to blame ourselves for having a thought. Nope, not at all; There's no "I gotta". There is Choice.

 

We can chose to blame. We can choose to notice... and return our attention to our breathing.

 

We can choose to just notice that. "That's a thought. Hmmmp. I'll just notice that and get my attention back onto my breathing." We do have thoughts. We do have sensations. Notice that. Then choose to get back to paying attention to breathing.

 

Now, it's true getting to a state where one is paying attention only to breathing, only, for a substantial duration, might take a bit of practice.

 

Or not.

 

But, it does yield to better and better attainment; People do get so that's what they are doing, doing only: What they Choose to be doing - for as long as they might want to.

 

I think what's going on in this exercise, among other things, is one comes to recognize that thoughts and feelings and such are are not what we are. They are things we have. They are things under our control. We may choose to more fully pay attention to them, and revel in them and have them come fully alive for us - and thus become at least somewhat effect of them, and have our awareness fully tangled in them. Also, we can choose to simply notice them and put our attention back on what we choose we want it on.

 

One is learning, through exercising it, Choice. One is exercising - and getting better at - control over thoughts, feeling, and actions. One is getting better at choosing whether to be the cause or effect of them.

 

I myself am after just controlling where I put my attention, as in Riding. I'm wanting to better be able to choose attending to the things that help or hinder bringing about what I'm seeking from Riding and this particular Ride. I can Choose to do that. I can choose to pay attention to the help/hinder things about this ride... or not.

 

I can choose to get, and then maintain, Spatial Awareness.

 

I can ride on down the road... Being Aware, being aware on a continuous basis of what's going on in the space in which I'm creating and sharing effects in.

 

I can notice when, "Hmmmm. I'm thinking about X. Well! That's a Thought... uh... not about Riding now. Cool. That's a thought. Now, put my attention back on my breathing... er... uh... Awareness of what's going on in the space I'm riding in.

 

No recrimnations. Why should I do that? I'm a human and things "pop up" for me just like all other humans. I'm not "bad" because of that; I'm just a human.

 

Recriminations are not... uh... putting my awareness of what's going on in the space I'm riding in. So, if I notice Recrimination arising in me over 'misdirected awareness', I just notice that too. Notice - And then get back to...

 

 

 

The one piece of motorcycling gear I virtually always wear is gloves.

 

The last thing I do before I ride off, the last thing I do after I mount up before I ride off, is put on my gloves. I'm aware of that. Even when I choose not to wear gloves when I'm just moving bikes around, I'm aware of that moment when I normally would put on gloves before I ride off.

 

In that moment, I visualize. I visualize the 'Cleveland' I'm heading to with this ride, and the state and condition I want to arive there in. Then, I consider the physicality of what I'm going to be riding through to get there... and who is going to be in that space, and what is going to be motivating them as they move through it: It ain't going to be about My Cleveland.

 

I'm not a teen-ager any more with glands telling me I need some of that old XYZ. I'm not an adult anymore who has more bills than salary, more kids than time, and more love than ways I have to show it... Well at least not here and now. THOSE things have their own time, and their own space. And they have their own time for thinking and feeling about them. Right now, is the time of Riding.

 

So... About that Space.

 

The fact I'm seeing is I am the last guy who's getting on this road who's wanting and needing to get to 'My Cleveland', and get there in the state I'm wanting and needing to get there in - the last one who really fully cares about that; I'm best served toward those needs and wants when I become and then remain aware and understanding of what's effecting that attainment, and active in Choice toward that attainment.

 

 

 

Bless you all. Particularly with great Awareness of your own Now... and the Space it's happening within.

 

Help put an end to Blind Spots. I think we have far too many of them and could use a few less of them.

[bakers_rt]

 

 

I could only read about a third of this wow

 

 

Folks, I've come away from this discussion about this kind of event with a quite different perspective than what I'm reading. I admit that before reading this thread I have had a policy about Riding in place that covers or relates to this kind of thing, that perhaps could be acting as, and perhaps rightfully called, a "pre-defined idea", or even a prejudice, that could be at work in getting me to hold onto that view and keep it seeming more important, or at least as important, as what others might think and express. So, if you see something I'm "missing", or devaluing in your eyes, or something like that, I'd really appreciate hearing about it so I can better meet my need for understanding.

 

 

 

First, I consider that a person should be aware they are, and not just in a blithe sense, "Responsible for their own state or condition, and what happens to bring that about.": There's a profound importance to me in understanding that quite fully. My view of the importance of that perhaps culminates thusly: I've come to see that perhaps our most powerful expression of that is, "We're the last ditch force or proponent of our own wellbeing."

 

That view holds that, in the general comings and going of life, the acts of others are virtually never primarily motivated toward maintaining or assisting our personal view of how we want things to remain, or to turn out - whether in either a subjective or objective sense those things are highly important or not. And, it follows therefrom, that the more important a state or condition is to us, the more importance we should be placing on our own cause in efforts and actions in service of our desires, rather than rely upon the Good Grace we hope lays within all the motivations that have others doing things in concert with us (like riding together on a road): In any given moment, they don't care all that much about what we ourselves are wanting and needing... so if its something really important to us, we ourselves had better mobilize our own resources on our behalf.

 

The point about "last ditch 'defense'" folds into this because of the Mutuality, and Shared Cause present in "social actions" like sharing use of our roads. Before we enter a roadway, there already are folks out there being Cause. They are being cause in service of the their own wants and neeeds. We are adding our wants and needs to that mix; We are adding our own 'causes' to that mix - Our own motivations, perceptions, conclusions, decisions, and actions, which produce effects. Those effects then bring about a change in the mix of 'how it is' and thus become... Consequent Cause: There is abuilding in our Ride a stream or subsequent cause-effect-cause-effect-cause... etc.

 

The point I'd have us understand about that is, as an Effect Stream (Look upon it as a 'beam' for a moment) begins to reach us, we have the opportunity to: Perceive it's coming; Consider and gauge its possible effect upon us; Decide whether we'll allow that to reach us in a passive or active state (Choice), and then to act passively or actively in response. We're the last she/he who has the opportunity, the potential Choice... to keep our wellbeing intact.

 

I have found its quite possible to exert a degree of control over other road users (i.e. cause some effect upon them - hopefully in ways that bring positvie effects, or effect streams, toward both of us). However, it profoundly seems that's a minority control. Their bulk of their own motivatins are still aimed at their own individual wants and needs far more stridently than toward mine. The upshot is that even wholly absent any rancor toward me, that freaking steamroller of cars four wide, twelve deep on the freeway is headed "that" way, whether "that" is what I'm wanting and needing or not. It would behoove me to: Get into this 'game'; Understand it is a 'game', and what is this 'game'; Remain active in this 'game' - By formulating and making Choices on my own behalf... that don't screw the game up in ways that get several or all of us in 'losing states'. I gotta keep my head out of my...

 

And, I'm the last guy who can to that - on my own behalf - in any case.

 

Those who study Philosophy, rather than "Just Do It", might recognize in what I've written, a Systemization, one in service of producing A (solitary but Integral) Logic. It's kind of a creation of "a fundamental 'ground'" on which many things might lay. It doesn't have any neaning in itself, though I did relate it to stuff we might share an understanding of so it would be more clear. You-all might actually find oodles and oodles of ways to apply those principles to other things in your life than 'changing lanes into disaster' like the subject rider of this thread did. It's 'Sh** to think with'.

 

Here's how I think it applies to the subject of this thread: A dumb-ass move that brought tragedy.

 

 

 

What freaking "Blind Spot??????!!!!!!"

 

The physical world is gonna have one or many Blind Spots - in it. But that doesn't mean I'm forced to Choose to have a blind spot in My own world!!!!!

 

I have the Choice to operate 'in a world of awareness of', a reality, of what is making up the part of the physical world I'm operating in - in service of my own and other's wants and needs. I have Choice to 'be aware', and in such a way there is no blind spot - no spot from which a wanted or unwanted effect might unknowingly eminate. I can get to be, and then remain Aware. I can Choose to do that.

 

Yeah, there's this thing called Spatial Awareness. But, understand, that starts with empty space; What's important is... what's going on within that space. We are served by, first, creating awareness of the space we're operating in, and then, second, looking in/through/among that space, and finding 'potential causes', all them cars with guys and gals in them each that have their own motivations and wants and needs... that are going this way and are likely to send Effect Streams over here in this piece of 'The Space' where I am... operating in the service of 'getting me to Cleveland in a certain state or condition'.

 

That's Getting Aware(ness). And, Responsible, by the way.

 

Now, to Maintain Awareness, we can exercise Choice and continue to scan that Space on a regualar and ongoing basis. That's staying Responsible (able to potentially respond), by the way.

 

When I make the Choice to do that, I stand a much better chance of making other Choices that get me to 'My Cleveland' in the desired state and condition I'm after, than if I make some other Choice.

 

That's because I now have sound and current data and information to base those Operating Choices upon.

 

 

 

Some of my friends tell me they think I do well at threading my way through traffic or on down curvey roads. Some tell me they grasp part of the reason behind that is the understanding I have gained of the factors that affect doing those things. We love to share our individual understanding - produce mutual understanding - and then to organize those things into "pertinences" we all can use to help us toward Riding Better.

 

However, some tell me they also grasp the level of my Riding stems from my staying aware of those factors I grasp that affect that process: Geting And Then Staying Aware of The Factors. They'd like to do that too, but they find that while they do have that awareness, or start off with that awareness, it wanes or fades, and almost always disappears in the course of their Ride. I've always wanted to share with them the ansnwer to, "So, how to you do that, Dick? How do you sustain that helpful awareness?", and do so in a way or ways that truly bring help. In the past I've tried and not done as good a job of it as I've wanted.

 

When I looked over what happend with the Rider in the subject post of this thread, I felt afraid. It wasn't a big error that was made which could have prevented that outcome - It was just a small one. The more I thought about that outcome the more I felt terror wash over me: What if that were a friend of mine? What if that were me? What if that were... anybody?

 

Can't something be done about that error to help meet my needs for physical and emotional wellbeing, for Fun, for accomplishment? Do my fears have to come true? Or, do I have a Choice? Do I have a Choice to try once again to express the importance of, and in fact the ease of, doing something that might prevent that tragic outcome - and many others?

 

In searching for a way to do that, I recalled something that happened in a counseling group I was facilitating. A person shared with me they knew what to do in a situation but they sometimes got "muscle bound" by a fear of failing at it when they started off to actually do that. Or, that in the midst of doing that thing they'd experience some fear and be distracted from doing the good job they really wanted to do.

 

I said, "Essentially, it seems to me you're presenting that old conumdrum, 'How do I keep from thinking about Pink Elephants?'"

 

To spare you all from certain agony, the answer is, "Think about something else."

 

I coninued that I'd like to share something I discovered about that with them if they were willing. It's kind of meditation. Virtually all meditations are a focusing of Attention - and thus Awareness.

 

Decide to set aside five minutes of your life in service of gaining more control over it and more enjoyment from it.

 

Sit or lay comfortably and quietly with your eyes closed.

 

Decide, for those five minutes, to pay attention to only your breathing.

 

Yeah. Just pay attention to only your breathing, and not to other things.

 

Grasp 'your breathing', comprehend it, be aware of it, however you like. You might feel the air passing through your nostrils, or notice the rise and fall of your chest or constriction and relaxation of your diaphram. You might be aware of your breathing because of a 'rush' of feeling throughout your body of the rhythm as oxygen reaches tissues, or a relief as carbon dioxide is pressed out of it through the lungs. Any way is just fine. But, just notice that, whatever 'that' is for you, whatever is your own awareness of your breathing. Just be aware of that. Let paying attention to your breathing be the important thing you are doing.

 

Perhaps as you do that you'll also become aware of something else, something other than your breathing. Well, OK. But, just notice that. Notice, "I've become aware of X." Perhaps, "I hear the sound of the air conditioner in the background". Or, "I feel pressure in my leg on the seat".

 

Just notice that. Perhaps, just say to yourself, "Hmmmmp. I notice that", and turn your attention back to your breathing. Notice your breathing, however you grasp that.

 

If you find you're thinking about something, well, notice that too, much as you did a physical sensation. No need to 'get into' thinking that thing: Just notice it. "Hmmmm. THAT is a thought", and return your attention to your breathing.

 

We don't need to get involved in it - stoutly throwing our attenion into or toward it.

 

We don't need to get into recriminations about its presence - it is present, and not more. We don't need to blame ourselves for having a thought. Nope, not at all; There's no "I gotta". There is Choice.

 

We can chose to blame. We can choose to notice... and return our attention to our breathing.

 

We can choose to just notice that. "That's a thought. Hmmmp. I'll just notice that and get my attention back onto my breathing." We do have thoughts. We do have sensations. Notice that. Then choose to get back to paying attention to breathing.

 

Now, it's true getting to a state where one is paying attention only to breathing, only, for a substantial duration, might take a bit of practice.

 

Or not.

 

But, it does yield to better and better attainment; People do get so that's what they are doing, doing only: What they Choose to be doing - for as long as they might want to.

 

I think what's going on in this exercise, among other things, is one comes to recognize that thoughts and feelings and such are are not what we are. They are things we have. They are things under our control. We may choose to more fully pay attention to them, and revel in them and have them come fully alive for us - and thus become at least somewhat effect of them, and have our awareness fully tangled in them. Also, we can choose to simply notice them and put our attention back on what we choose we want it on.

 

One is learning, through exercising it, Choice. One is exercising - and getting better at - control over thoughts, feeling, and actions. One is getting better at choosing whether to be the cause or effect of them.

 

I myself am after just controlling where I put my attention, as in Riding. I'm wanting to better be able to choose attending to the things that help or hinder bringing about what I'm seeking from Riding and this particular Ride. I can Choose to do that. I can choose to pay attention to the help/hinder things about this ride... or not.

 

I can choose to get, and then maintain, Spatial Awareness.

 

I can ride on down the road... Being Aware, being aware on a continuous basis of what's going on in the space in which I'm creating and sharing effects in.

 

I can notice when, "Hmmmm. I'm thinking about X. Well! That's a Thought... uh... not about Riding now. Cool. That's a thought. Now, put my attention back on my breathing... er... uh... Awareness of what's going on in the space I'm riding in.

 

No recrimnations. Why should I do that? I'm a human and things "pop up" for me just like all other humans. I'm not "bad" because of that; I'm just a human.

 

Recriminations are not... uh... putting my awareness of what's going on in the space I'm riding in. So, if I notice Recrimination arising in me over 'misdirected awareness', I just notice that too. Notice - And then get back to...

 

 

 

The one piece of motorcycling gear I virtually always wear is gloves.

 

The last thing I do before I ride off, the last thing I do after I mount up before I ride off, is put on my gloves. I'm aware of that. Even when I choose not to wear gloves when I'm just moving bikes around, I'm aware of that moment when I normally would put on gloves before I ride off.

 

In that moment, I visualize. I visualize the 'Cleveland' I'm heading to with this ride, and the state and condition I want to arive there in. Then, I consider the physicality of what I'm going to be riding through to get there... and who is going to be in that space, and what is going to be motivating them as they move through it: It ain't going to be about My Cleveland.

 

I'm not a teen-ager any more with glands telling me I need some of that old XYZ. I'm not an adult anymore who has more bills than salary, more kids than time, and more love than ways I have to show it... Well at least not here and now. THOSE things have their own time, and their own space. And they have their own time for thinking and feeling about them. Right now, is the time of Riding.

 

So... About that Space.

 

The fact I'm seeing is I am the last guy who's getting on this road who's wanting and needing to get to 'My Cleveland', and get there in the state I'm wanting and needing to get there in - the last one who really fully cares about that; I'm best served toward those needs and wants when I become and then remain aware and understanding of what's effecting that attainment, and active in Choice toward that attainment.

 

 

 

Bless you all. Particularly with great Awareness of your own Now... and the Space it's happening within.

 

Help put an end to Blind Spots. I think we have far too many of them and could use a few less of them.

[ESokoloff]

Rider error? He got hit in the rear, driver failure to keep clear distance as far as I can see it.

 

 

This VERY LUCKY rider was to preoccupied with a traffic incident that he had just pasted & was Hell bent on reporting it to the LEO's.

As a result of this incident he is giving up riding a motorcycle.

IMHO this is best for Motorcycling & his well being.

[pbbeck]

Folks, I've come...

 

...could use a few less of them.

 

How do you decide which Nouns to capitalize?

[Bob]

Outstanding sharing, Mr. Frantz - my sincere thanks for your continued investment in others. Stuff to contemplate for a long time so it permeates to always matter and make me better when I am smart enough. Situational head-checks ensure learning survives. Reality remains brutally honest and never considers fairness because it does not have to. We choose to become part of and contribute to experiences that can’t be seen in entirety, setting into motion consequences that we never envisioned and no longer control. Legacy is the collateral we leave - hopefully positive contributions; not bricks perpetuating ignorance.

 

With admiration for heroes with burning core values who invest in others because they care enough to act - no matter the outcome; no matter the agreement.

[rdfrantz]

Folks, I've come...

 

...could use a few less of them.

 

How do you decide which Nouns to capitalize?

Distinct and discrete capitalization is not a 'made up by me' method of communicating Special Meaning - it is Common Practice among practiced writers who wish to convey understanding and meaning about less common, 'more important' ideas imbued in a word, particularly to folks of not-so-common and not-so-popular interest - such as motorcyclists.

 

Each of the capitalized words I've used has a set of "common meaning". One would leave them uncapitalized to evoked those 'more common' ideas in order to match perhaps usual circumstances of association of them to other ideas or subjects within a communication.

 

Where the practice underway by the writer is to communicate an idea outside that ordinary meaning set, but still intrinsic to that word, a special case if you will, they capitalize it to indicated the alternate, perhaps super important sense(s) of that word.

 

In the three paragraphs above the same words were used both capitalized and not. Two different cases of direction within the range of their meanings were intended. Those words were "Practice, Common, Meaning, and Special".

 

Varied Capitalization is also used to show 'special regard', such as 'God', or titular as 'President', or both of those as I tend to write for 'Motorcyclists'. All three of those words are often presented in different cases (capitalization) to evoke different meanings. Even the word for capitalization, 'case', holds the meaning, 'Capitalize (User upper case) it if you want to show its use reflects a different case/circumstance.'

 

 

I offer the paragraph below in the hope of sharing what varied case means to me the living, breathing, loving, and caring human... who attempts to communicate and bring about shared understanding.

 

The concepts bound in the word "riding" are broad. The word contains, or is capable of expressing or being used to express, the meaning set we can understand within, "I was just riding to the store." It also contains a more grave or powerful meaning set, let us say about the "institution" that encompasses all kinds of stuff about and surrounding getting on down the road on a motorcycle. That 'institutional meaning (set)' is well expressed through capitalization in the phrase, "My God, do I ever love Riding."

 

In other words (No, in the same words), "riding" does not mean "Riding".

 

 

My hope is that you got beyond the Form of the writing, and were positively moved by the Content. It was offered in loving hope it might help make your life better, particularly as a Rider.

 

Best wishes.