How to fall from your bicycle
I fall from my bicycle sometimes. I like it. When I arrive with a thud, I am very intimate with Mother Earth. The brief moment before is also good: I float through space weightlessly.
The most dangerous time is when it's wet outside, and the cobblestones are gleaming and slippery. I have too much speed in the turn and I have to brake. That's the moment. I am flying. Because I am enjoying the trip, I am relaxed. That’s why I never have anything more than a few bruises and scratches to answer for. Other cyclists and bystanders invariably come up to me with worried faces:" Are you ok? Do you need help?” they ask. I hold humanity in high regard. I smile to assuage their worries and tell them I am ok. I am embarrassed for fear they will find me a dumb-ass.
At least twice, I have fallen from my bicycle with a musical instrument (a ukelele and a guitar, in case you wonder) and somehow, they survived without even a blemish. Subconsciously I decide in the short moment of falling that their well-being is more important than mine.
Of course, I never wear a helmet while biking, being Dutch.
I wonder: can anyone relate to this, or is this one of my idiosyncrasies?