DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR BICYCLE or riding one for the first time? Or better yet, learning how to ride one? My oldest sister, Kathleen, had a used bicycle; my other sister, Bobbie, bought a bike with her First Communion money; and I had to share their bikes when they were not using them. I wanted to learn how to ride their bikes, and they did try to teach me several times, as did my dad, but I just couldn’t get the hang of it.
One summer day when I was nine, school was out, and we slept as long as we wanted, I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and decided that I was going to take Bobbie’s bike and go for a ride. We lived in Minneapolis at the time, a few blocks from the Mississippi River, and I set out to accomplish this feat all by myself. There were sidewalks in only part of our neighborhood, so I would have to ride on the busy street some of the time, but I was determined to ride that bike. It was almost as if I had been called to do it that morning. I was just that confident!
Mission accomplished! I got on Bobbie’s new bike and everything went well, balancing the bike without falling and pedaling my way around the neighborhood all morning. I didn’t want to even stop for lunch because I was afraid that I would not be able to do it again. I think I did stop for lunch, and I was delighted that I could do it again the next day and many days after but only when my sister would let me use her bike.
An article by John Miller in America Magazine (April 2021) about the saving factors of bicycles got me thinking about how bicycles could really be a tool that can help us solve several of our major issues today. I challenge you to think about how a significant number of us using bicycles instead of cars could help lessen the effects of car emissions on air quality. Even if we used bikes just around our neighborhoods, for shorter errands, even going to school or work, this would certainly help. I know that there is a concerted effort to develop more efficient electric vehicles, but there are those who say that we don’t have much time left to get this right to be of any real help in significantly diminishing climate change.
When I think about the global population, and even in our country, a bicycle would be a great equalizer for folks suffering from the effects of segregation, poverty, illiteracy, and disease. Is not transportation the number one need among people segregated by age, disability, gender, and education? In the 49 years I’ve been working with the elders in this community, transportation has been and still is the number one need of our elders.
In my religious community, transportation has become a major issue as many of us can no longer drive or help one another get to appointments, family gatherings, and just plain ordinary activities. Is there a bicycle that has been invented that could help with this problem? I’m not sure. Whenever I get these bright ideas and think I’m on to something, someone has already created what I’m looking for. Is it you? I’ve had my eye on a three-wheel adult bicycle for some time now.
As usual, I don’t have the solution to the challenges I raise here, but I do hope this will help the reader reflect on the issues and take some time to discuss them with others and actually move toward some practical solutions. Wouldn’t it be something if “It might be all about the bike”?
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org.
The humble bicycle stands alone
as the only tool that can
simultaneously fight climate change,
segregation, poverty, illiteracy and disease…
It might be all about the bike.
+John W. Miller
