I'm going to buy a motorcycle. It's going to be a cruiser because they look cool and ride low enough for me to reach over with my stubby legs. It will, of course, be shiny. So far, these are my requirements.
That sounds like I'll take any shiny cruiser. That's simply not the case. I'm not jumping into this blind. I went to a few dealers, sat on their bikes, and made knowing grunts when they pointed out what shiny thing did what, or why this bike costs $1000 more than that bike which looks... exactly the same. I've had knowing discussions with my friends who ride, covering topics ranging from helmet choice to the all important CC. For those who don't know, the displacement (which is one of the major factors determining an engine's horsepower output) is measured in cubic centimeters, or CCs for those in the know.
People, the CC is everything. Knowing that one of my friends rides a 1600 CC monster and another rides a still-not-dainty 750 CC, I've decided I really can't go lower than 750 CCs. I've been told I'll outgrow it if I go smaller. I can only assume they mean the bike will shrink over time, much like cotton when you first wash it, because genetics has determined that I'm pretty much as big as I'm going to get. Bikes, it seems, are more complicated than one would assume.
I rode my buddy's 750 the other night. We tooled around in a parking lot, him mostly laughing, me mostly trying not to die a horrible death. I was struck by one, incontrovertible fact: reading about riding a motorcycle and actually riding one are two completely different things. Riding is better.
The Christian life is like that too. Reading about it, reading about how other people lived it, is nice. But living it is better. To paraphrase King Solomon in the book he wrote when he was a crotchety old man, "Too much studying will suck the life out of you." So study, sure, but do something too.
I really wasn't trying to write anything spiritual today. But I was writing, and that paragraph came out, so there it sits.
That sounds like I'll take any shiny cruiser. That's simply not the case. I'm not jumping into this blind. I went to a few dealers, sat on their bikes, and made knowing grunts when they pointed out what shiny thing did what, or why this bike costs $1000 more than that bike which looks... exactly the same. I've had knowing discussions with my friends who ride, covering topics ranging from helmet choice to the all important CC. For those who don't know, the displacement (which is one of the major factors determining an engine's horsepower output) is measured in cubic centimeters, or CCs for those in the know.
People, the CC is everything. Knowing that one of my friends rides a 1600 CC monster and another rides a still-not-dainty 750 CC, I've decided I really can't go lower than 750 CCs. I've been told I'll outgrow it if I go smaller. I can only assume they mean the bike will shrink over time, much like cotton when you first wash it, because genetics has determined that I'm pretty much as big as I'm going to get. Bikes, it seems, are more complicated than one would assume.
I rode my buddy's 750 the other night. We tooled around in a parking lot, him mostly laughing, me mostly trying not to die a horrible death. I was struck by one, incontrovertible fact: reading about riding a motorcycle and actually riding one are two completely different things. Riding is better.
The Christian life is like that too. Reading about it, reading about how other people lived it, is nice. But living it is better. To paraphrase King Solomon in the book he wrote when he was a crotchety old man, "Too much studying will suck the life out of you." So study, sure, but do something too.
I really wasn't trying to write anything spiritual today. But I was writing, and that paragraph came out, so there it sits.
Comments