I thought a good way to start off this blog about green things, bikes and of course, love.
Let me start off with Bikes:
For those of you in utah valley, you may know that next weekend is the Holi Festival of Colors, which takes place at Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork Utah. Here's the link for those of you interested. The festival involves lots of chanting, dancing, and throwing colored chalk dust on everyone. Last year I went with a few friends from Provo. The drive should only take about 25 minutes, but due to close to 20,000 people all flocking to the Temple, it took probably about an hour, including a mile or more walk along a crowded minor state highway, to get to the festival. Being a proud bicycle commuter, I couldn't help but imagine myself flying past the hot hoods of the long line of cars on 2 wheels instead of sitting in the passengers seat of my friends car. When posters for this years festival began showing up around town, I remembered my experience from last year and decided that a bike trip down this year would be great fun. I started by talking to my sister Jessie (check out her much more entertaining blog here) and we began inviting friends. I made a facebook event called 'Rainbow Road' (yes you're invited too) and soon we had a decent following. Saturday at 2pm we'll be meeting in Provo to bike down in bright colors.
Because I've never made the ride before, and I was interested in trying out Google Maps new bicycle application, I decided to head down today and participate in the Temple's Sunday chanting and vegetarian feast. So, I donned my sweater, stuffed my bag with a journal, camera, piece of cake, and a scarf, stuffed a page of directions from Google in my pocket, and hopped on my bike.
I headed down 900 E, switched to 700 E and took state st. toward springville.
Here I'd like to add an interesting note. Usually when I bike I find myself doing one of a few things with my brain. Usually it rests and sort of passively absorbs the view, smells and helps me dodge oblivious motorists. Sometimes I talk to God and rarely I find myself having very specific thoughts. I am a notoriously poor multi-tasker. But this afternoon with the wind blowing against my body, and the beautiful snow-covered wasatch front on my left hand, I found my mind acting like it never has before while biking. I was trying to enjoy the ride but the fact that I was planning on posting my experiences online was really distracting. I kept thinking "I'll say this" "I'll mention that" "I need to find something interesting to say!" I couldn't help but think about something I'd read recently in a japanese internship prep class. It was an essay about fieldwork written by William Kelly of Yale University. In one of his main points he talks about being an observer of culture and a participator simultaneously. In fact he says this is the only way fieldwork can happen. You cannot observe
from a very affective reference point without getting so close that you become a part of the experiment. This is one of the main reasons fieldwork is not usually classified as a science. Interestingly enough fritjof capra in The Tao of Physics talks about how in the new advances in physics, the observer conducting the experiment is inherently influencing it by observing it. This often proves problematic. Biking today I found myself struggling with being an observer and a participant.The ride was great, and the chanting food and company at the temple even better. I'll have to add the LOVE section of the trip in another post as its getting late, but here's a photo of the temple for those of you aren't familiar with it.
All the best,
Spencer
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