Be Careful

The video is what this is all about for me. But, compulsive as I am, I shot 353 photos in addition to helping video Corinna's performance at the Blue Room.



And despite the considerable limitations of both my camera and the photographer, a few of them were bound to come out.



I was truly surprised when Corinna didn't place. I know, you'll say my judgment is clouded by love, but besides the fact that she really killed it, her performance was radically different from anything you normally see on this stage.



And I hear the same line all the time, too. "Be careful."



As if riding my bicycle for transportation instead of just to work out somehow makes me a member of a snake-handling cult or a sideshow sword-swallower who might accidentally disembowel himself.



But truly, not riding is the risky behavior.



I've never been diagnosed, mainly because I've never bothered a doctor about it, but I've been prone, as many in my family tree are, to depression in my life. Mainly, I become aware of it when I emerge on the other side.



The common thread of those phoenix moments are physical activity and socialization.



A pill won't fix solitary and sedentary, but a bicycle is a pretty effective balm against both. If you ride it.



The anti-bike, of course, is TV, which causes depression by encouraging people to be solitary and sedentary and then adds insult to injury by parading a constant stream of messages that distill to: Your life isn't good enough if it doesn't look like this.



Said message is underscored by a parade of plastic surgery addicts with heavy makeup and capped teeth, so that even the people who are trotted out as idols for the masses fail to live up to the ideal.

Besides, as someone who had a heart attack at the ripe old age of 32, back when I watched a lot of TV and couldn't remember the last time I'd been in the saddle, I'll take the risks of riding (which I know all too well) over sitting around waiting for more angina.



That opening scene in Office Space, where they're stuck in traffic and the old man with the walker is making better time than our protagonist? That scene doesn't happen when you ride your bike to the office.



So like my girl says, you be careful.