The Case Against the Excessive E-Bike (Pay attention, parents.)

 

e-bike - noun - a bicycle that can be run on electric power as well as pedaling. (Oxford Languages)

It has been 261 years since Voltaire wrote, "Common sense is not so common" in his work A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary. You would think more of us humans might have acquired some in the interim. Nope.

What is the latest nonsensical purchase for kids under eighteen? The e-bike. Innocently enough, this new fangled creation is in theory a bike. But don't be fooled. Just because it looks like your average two-wheeler, offering its riders a choice to pedal fiercely on manual or ride on a current of electricity on automatic, doesn't make it a substitute for your grandparent's 1956 Raleigh. If anything, it is more of a moped, the pseudo motorcycle that requires a driver's license, meaning that the rider has to be at least seventeen to ride it. The average moped can reach a top speed of 28-35 mph. And guess what? A superior e-bike can travel up to 28 mph as well. And the biker does not need a driver's license, making this device the most sought-after toy for minors out there. Apparently, kids, who are often bogged down by iPhones and video games, are feeling the need for speed outdoors on the open roads. Scary. 

Being that the holiday season will dominate sight lines after Halloween (at least at Walmart), should parents cave in to their kids' emotional pleas to buy them these bikes for Christmas or Hanukkah? Nope. Absolutely not. Why? AT $250 to over $3,000 per bike, THEY ARE expensive DEATHTRAPS. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Case in point: A week or so ago, my former musical partner in Jersey felt the need to text me some horrific news as I was preparing dinner here in SoCal. A thirteen-year-old-middle-school student who had been e-biking home from school collided with a landscaper's truck and was killed instantly just a few yards from her front lawn. The boy was moving so fast that the driver of the truck didn't even realize that the accident had taken place until he was over a block away. Rumor has it that the boy had been simultaneously texting and riding his e-bike at maximum speed, a trick that had obfuscated his awareness. Obviously, the adolescent was not mature enough to realize that what he was doing had the potential to be lethal. The tragic collision prompted local authorities to ban the e-bike from parks, but I am sure there will be some parents who will still permit their kids to ride them everywhere else. 

Here in L.A., there is a group of middle-school boys who have formed a nightmarish gang called the "Wheelie Boys." They joyride on e-bikes at top speeds, wildly traversing boulevard traffic at night, doing wheelies (a balancing act involving putting all of their weight on the rear wheel of their e-bikes so that the front wheel is forced up into the air). Why their parents would let them out of their homes at dinner time to do this sort of thing is beyond me. (These kids are from wealthy families for the most part.)  Why anyone would buy youngsters these dangerous bikes is just not in the range of common sense. 

Listen, parents. Take it from a retired, middle-school English teacher who raised a daughter pretty much by herself. If you want your children to grow up to a ripe old age in or out of your house, don't allow them to cajole you into getting them this toxic excuse for a modern invention. Buy them a "Keep Calm, I'm an Official Teenager" blanket on Amazon for $24.99 instead. It's cheap; it's comical; it's safe; it's worry free. Most of all, just think before you act when it comes to supplying your kids with the latest in trendy technological purchases. Voltaire would be proud of you for using genuine logic.

#blog, #social commentary, #personal essay, #e-bikes, #parenting, #opinion

Dualities

 

duality - noun - an instance of opposition or contrast between two concepts or aspects of something (Oxford Languages)

For over twenty years, I taught various classic literary works to a total of about 2,000 adolescent student listeners (well, maybe all 2K weren't always listening) in a handful of secondary schools. Most of our discussions hinged on thematic dualities present in poetry, short stories, plays, and novels. The most popular themes in all were good versus evil and love versus hate, relative terms. It makes sense as we know that art reflects life. Lately, both good versus evil and  love versus hate are relevant dualities, not that they have ever been out of fashion. 

Life is filled with opposition, dualities. Without which, there wouldn't be balance, but why is it that when people latch on to an ideology that they can wear comfortably almost like new prescription eyeglasses, they tend to become blind to the negatives. Oh, the irony of it all. In every saint, there is a sinner. And I don't have to name names here. In our impatient efforts to espouse the second coming, we who believe in God (and maybe some who don't) deify those who should not be deified. If all of the recorded saints were interviewed on podcasts today, I doubt any would admit to being 100% perfect. Why? They were human beings built on the concept of duality. Ergo, we as humans are all walking dualities, prone to making mistakes. 

Can we shift the balance of good versus evil, right versus wrong, good versus evil? Yes, we can, but it requires self-awareness and common sense, and neither is prolific in our world today. What I have been finding worthy of note–if not just hopeful– recently is the number of social media posts remembering Robert Redford. Which is a positive sign as he was not known to activate hate by being divisive in any sense of the word. His goal was to stand up for what is right and did so via an artistic medium that has the ability to reach millions all at once. Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't recall that he said anything off color about any marginalized groups. Which is why people are bothering to remember his life via extravagant tenderness. Such a beautiful concept! 

While we are in the neighborhood of that, my church book club members and I am reading The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Father Gregory Boyle who has been working for over thirty years with felon gang members here in Los Angeles via his organization Homeboy Industries. His words are rearranging my perspective on what it means not only to be an authentic Christian (who loves exclusively), but to be the best version of my human self. And don't we all strive to do that as well? Just be decent people? I will share a passage from the book that has stayed with me:

 "The goal of our extraordinarily humble God is less union with God, but union among us, (which is,          of course, unitive with God). Then we can rest in the stillness of love and go forward, to love in the          stillness of love and go forward, to love in the stillness of God. Then we are the river winding its                 way to the sea: the union with God and 'neighbor.' We are all just trying to get to the sea." (3)

In his own subtle way, "G," as he is affectionately called by his mentees, infers that we humans can consciously choose between love and hate, intentionally upsetting the balance in favor of love by eradicating division that plagues our society caused by two topics banned at the dinner table by most parents in the 1960s: religion and politics. This is easy to do. All it takes is losing the blinders, accepting truth, and embracing positive change...or maybe just keeping controversial opinions under wraps? 

I have many friends and family members who do not share the same religious or political beliefs as I do. As we can't seem to have peaceable discussions, we simply choose not to. Instead, we focus on that which we have in common (common ground). By doing so, the love between us remains a constant focus, towering above hate. Unity is always possible.

#blog, #blogger, #personal essay, #society, #advice, #love, #GregoryBoyle, #Christianity