A week ago I borrowed a motorcycle from the selection of pre-owned machines of Kissell Motorsports –a 2005 BMW F650 GS. I’ll often find myself looking at their web site listings or trolling eBay for the quintessential deal. For a lot of riders a used motorcycle is the best route into the world of riding. And during those rides I found myself thinking about Christmas.
Junior and I walked in the park this morning to the tolling of bells from a nearby church, announcing Christmas Day. Blue sky, bright sun and the temperature pushing forty degrees doesn’t feel like Christmas.
I’ve been thinking about Christmas all week, trying to bring to life those feelings I had as a kid when Santa Claus was real. Memories of candle light services on Christmas Eve singing Silent Night, the anticipation of presents under a tree seem to fade away a bit more every year. Charles Dickens wrote that Christmas can, “…win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home.”. Maybe that’s what I was looking for.
Roaming the countryside on a motorcycle often fuels a flood of thinking. I found my thoughts leaning towards the past, to things that would not come again. Each stop along the road seemed to trigger a memory of Christmas time. Each memory bringing another, and another.
Looking at motorcycles (when you tend to obsess about them) isn’t a lot different than coveting a BB gun or some other must have item of childhood. The evening I picked up the BMW was like that — the proverbial kid in the candy store — so many things to desire.
A festive red Ducati should feel like Christmas shouldn’t it?
Or certainly a pink Vespa would conjure some sort of magic if only given a chance. But maybe what the Grinch said is true: “Maybe Christmas, the Grinch thought, doesn’t come from a store.”
The pink Vespa will have to wait for another day along with the Triumph Tiger 800 XC and the flat screen TV I was thinking about.
The BMW F650 GS in its 2005 incarnation is a marvelously nimble motorcycle on the gravel roads that crisscross the central Pennsylvania forests. Aggressive knobby tires provide a surefooted ride at speeds I don’t normally attempt in these environs. The bike is completely comfortable from the start.
I felt like Charlie Brown. Christmas time is coming and I don’t feel the way I’m supposed to feel. Or at least that was what I was thinking. Riding through beautiful landscapes I can’t quite appreciate because I’m searching for the Christmas spirit. The little red-haired girl is waiting at home for me, my black dog too, and here I was along a creek, watching the cold, clear water sweep by and nothing. I’m blessed but don’t quite appreciate it.
A more gentle place? I am working this weekend and you’d be amazed how many drunks feel a little fight is a great way to celebrate the season of goodwill! At least Key West isn’t Nigeria where they are using high explosives. Plus we get Cuban roast pork rice beans and plantains for an ethnic christmas feast tonight!
Merry merry whatevers to you and yours!
Steve,
Interesting train of thought to be having on Christmas….my own childhood memories of Christmas aren’t all joy and wonder; and I prefer to dwell in the now.
A great family, an obsession I enjoy and my wife enables: motorcycling, good friends both local and online, a job that doesn’t suck too badly and relatively good health…I try to keep the bad thoughts at bay with this good stuff.
Seems to me, the Christmas spirit you are seeking is where you allow yourself to find it. Don’t look too hard….I recommend heavier doses of longer rides on the GS or the Triumph.
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Dom
FYI…was using Martha’s iPad on first posting attempt.
Dom
Space. Space is so difficult for me to find during the Holiday Season. Too many folks wanting a piece of me. Too many disruptions of my routine, a routine that seems to have too many disruptions already even at the best of times. Space. Riding gives me space, and with space comes things of the spirit . . . and when moving with the things of the spirit can come gratitude.
Merry Christmas, Steve. Ride safe and ride with lots of space.
~keith
Peace and Christmas spirit for me is that quiet place in my heart and soul when I find myself thinking how blessed I am by having the joy of family and friends. It is in the smile that comes across my daughter’s face when we do things together. Sometimes I think we forget about the small things that give us joy, it is hard to get past the commercial hype that happens around celebrating Christmas in our world today. It depends what you believe too, for me it is a chance for new beginnings and the hope that tomorrow or in the very near future that we humans will truly understand peace and love each other despite what our faith beliefs are and that religious beliefs won’t be used as a tool for a justification for hate. So for me the Christmas spirit is about hope.
Steve;
My childhood memories are about sadness and the hope that I would have a family like so many others, that was not to be. Christmas brings me unhappy memories of the past which I would rather forget. Those were unhappy times of having to fend for myself. Things are much better now and I prefer to look ahead.
I think a lot of the Christmas spirit had gotten confused with commercialism and the need to purchase, when in fact it is really about friends, family and our blogging community and the hope that there will be peace in the world, someday.
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
Merry Christmas to you!
I think back and remember easily how blessed I am. My parents were in Germany during the war. So Christmas was, as they said, what you were able to make of it. Aunts and uncles were seperated from the family and while I’ve talked to them, not much is really divulged. They look to today, to their children whose childhoods were memorable by those aunts and uncles’ efforts. What I have, what my cousins have, is because the spirit of giving and the tenacious obsession to put us first is a gift beyond anything I could ever ask for. Because it is beyond my understanding to have been where they were.
For those who had virtually nothing given to them, know that what you have given of yourself when you could, is the strength which makes your loved ones grateful to have you in their lives.
Christmas is about the tenacity of spirit in spite of conditions. The near obsessive internal will to overcome, in spite of what logic seems to tell us. It is the natural condition of the human spirit which leads us to trust in something which doesn’t necessarily make sense to us.
Christmas reminds us to have faith.
Harv
Merry Christmas Steve. Thanks for being a part of my Christmas.
David
Conchscooter: Reading the news of late it certainly can seem like the world is getting harder. On the radio this morning I heard a discussion about Christmas not being what it used to be with more violence and death.
Even so, I’m hopeful that our better natures will prevail for most. Or at least the opportunity exists. Either way, have a great holiday!
And I’m looking forward to your new site appearance. Any hints??
Charlie6: I think you’re right, the past is the past and all we have is now. Still, hard not to drift backwards from time to time when there’s happy memories.
My riding is much diminished or late for a lot of reasons. But I’ll take your advice and take some additional doses of long rides!
Circle Blue: You’ve hit the nail on the head for one of the biggest attractions of riding — finding space, being alone. It certainly is true for me most of the time unless my thoughts get the best of me.
You have a great holiday and ride safe and spacious as well!
Dar: Appreciating the little things…. easy to forget amidst the commercial hype you reference.
Here’s hoping the world will be a better place today and tomorrow.
bobskoot: You’re right about family and friends being at the center of things and Christmas gives us an excuse to really think about them. And maybe if we all take care of our own little worlds the larger one will be ok.
It is the season of hope.
American Scooterist Blog: (Harv) I still read your blog!
A great message you’ve shared about the human spirit to overcome adversity. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Ride safe on your Vespa!
David Masse: Merry Christmas to you!
Used motorcycles and BB guns. Look what I found in Baltimore for $3800, about 2000 miles on it.
http://i711.photobucket.com/albums/ww115/poppawheelie_2009/IMG_2901-1.jpg
After watching “A Christmas Story” for the umteenth time, the wife and I shot my old childhood BB gun out the back window at old light bulbs placed at the bottom of the yard.
BUT, as Bobscoot said, what Christmas is all about is family and friends, and thank God, I’ve got plenty of that. Oh, and some hope too.
poppawheelie: Is that motorcycle find going to be your newest addition? Seems like a good deal at $3800. A Sportster is it?
Light bulbs. Now those would be fun to plink at. Anything that breaks or explodes while shooting is cool.
Looking forward to the rest of the holiday and a great New Year. And getting my Vespa back.
Best wishes to you and your family!
Steve,
Yes, it’s a 2003 Anniversary Edition Sportster. It’s in the basement for polishing. I hate The Factory – won’t get into that here – but love the bikes. Couldn’t help myself at that price.
Poppawheelie: What a bargain for such a nice motorcycle.
Does it have the lower vibration engine or are your fingernails going to bleed?
Steve, no it does not have the rubber mounted engine, and I wouldn’t have it if it did. The vibration is not that great, and it only serves to keep me awake and circulate the blood on cross country trips. I wish it had kick start.