Friday, November 7, 2008

Breezing through the night . . .

People think when you're in school you have time on your hands. You really don't, but I took some time last night to do something out of the ordinary -- at least for me. In the late night hour, around 10:30 p.m. (after I left work) I took off on a motorscooter with one of my seminary friends flying . . . or riding high through the streets of downtown Atlanta and it felt GREAT!!! There I was in the cold of the night making my way, rounding curves down Ponce de Leon when I thought to myself, "I am actually riding on the back of this thing on my way to I have no idea where." For a moment, I thought about the reading assignment I had to complete for my 9:30 a.m. class and the radio interview I needed to listen to. I thought about how this had to be one of the craziest things I've done. And in the next moment, the thoughts vanished. This ride, which was supposed to last 45 minutes turned into a 2 1/2 hour adventure. We stopped by a place to watch the rest of the Cleveland Browns football game and the Portland basketball game. We later drove to Barley's to shoot two games of pool (I'm pissed that I lost!) before jumping back on our bike to ride out again.

It was a freedom I haven't experienced in a while since being here. For just those few hours, I forgot about the responsibilities, the obligations, the late night hour and even the cold breeze of the dark night and just lived. For just a few hours, as James Baldwin suggested in his novel Fire Next Time, I took notice of what everybody else was doing and went in the opposite direction.

And it felt sooooo good!

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