The Ride
A curious place to build trust
“Tell us a little bit about yourself…what you like to do for fun…something interesting about you.” An assignment to create a mini video introduction in order to get in line for a freelance job. Done far too many of these, so I ever aim to offer something that holds curiosity for me. This time I found myself talking about a recent experience that then carried me down a contemplative path long beyond the assignment.
Years ago when my spouse finally manifest a life long dream to ride vintage motorcycles, that would then unlock a passion for designing and building cafe racer styled moto bikes, I initially sat on the sidelines. Too much conditioned fear around bikes from my family, and newly ignited fear and concern from my mom-in-law. I was out. So whenever Jessika asked if I wanted to go for a ride, my usual response was “Have a great time, stay safe, and no, that’s not for me.”
After about a year of this, I watched her walk out to the garage one Saturday afternoon and a startling wave of curiosity washed over me. First, I wondered why I was choosing to miss out on quality time spent with Jessika on a weekend afternoon, plus I genuinely longed to know what the fuss was all about. Why do so many love to ride?
So I shocked her when I showed up at the garage door declaring that I was ready to roll. We pulled together passenger safety gear for me, and I took my seat as pillion that afternoon and haven’t left it since. I finally got it as we ventured through the city to the countryside that day. We have adventured far and wide upon The Ride since then.
Over the years we found the way to help ease the concern of our terrified moms to the point where they would ask about our adventures and delight in the truly unique builds that Jessika creates. We also found community with others upon their rides.
Beyond that multi-sensory experience of moving through space and time upon the earth atop a human-crafted machine, with both extraordinary mindfulness and abandon operating all at once, The Ride stands as a trust builder within our relationship. We have each other’s backs in this in a serious way. This trust building practice runs deep and delivers a healing grace upon our long traveled partnership.
The Golden Boat ride on dry land
As I recalled the myriad twists and turns of The Ride this week, a delightful memory bubbled up. In 2008, Bricolage Production Company (www.pghbricolage.com)—a visionary and prolific theatre company helmed by my friends/colleagues Tami Dixon and Jeffrey Carpenter—brought a raucous production of playwright Trista Baldwin’s Chicks With Dicks—Bad Girls on Bikes Doing Bad Things to the Pittsburgh stage. The descriptive of this play on Trista’s site (www.tristabaldwin.com) reads “What happens when a prom-queen runner up meets an all-girl biker gang at the end of a bad date? Nothing you’d expect, in this loving, campy send up of 60’s bad girl B-movies…with a nuclear twist.” We had waaay too much fun bringing this baby to life! What a JOY to play a 14 year old named Little Cindi, when I was a 40-something, alongside an incredible ensemble cast and crew directed by Tami Dixon.
Strutting my “14 year old” stuff as Little Cindi before the nuclear transformation in Bricolage’s 2008 production of Chicks With Dicks. Archival production photos by Jason Cohn www.jasoncohn.com
After the awakening of “Evil” Cindi with Jason Planitzer feeling the fear.
Restored again to Little Cindi to find bliss with Vespa, played by Lisa Ann Goldsmith, through mud wrestling refereed by Gregory Johnstone and onward towards sunsets together upon the back of a bike.
So after a recent Golden Hour/Full Moon/Dari-Delight ride that Jessika and I took after too long of a riding sabbatical, I remembered Little Cindi’s impassioned anthem she sang out over and over again with supercharged bliss in Chicks with Dicks. “I just want to RIDE!!!”
Oh yeahhhh, I get that.
