Our Common Shared Passion

I’ve been in a bit of a funk as of late, dealing with some health issues all summer, but mostly reflecting on the violence and division so prevalent in our country and culture today. Remembering the horror of a crazed shooter slaughtering little children worshiping in a Catholic mass, the brutal and tragic deaths of a young Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte metro train and a professor walking her dog in a Houston city park, and the assassination of political activist and social commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah. Not to mention the school shootings and other tragedies that fill our news feeds moment by moment.

My heart is heavy with grief, and my mind asks the question, what is happening in our society?

My friend and fellow Road Dirt writer Neale Bayly called me, and we talked about the sorrow we’ve experienced at these and other tragedies of recent days and months. Darkness is abounding, and spreading. Like King Theoden wondered at the Battle of Helms Deep (LOTR, The Two Towers), “So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?” Neale stated, “I just can’t imagine how some humans can be so evil.” This world has always been a violent place, and humans have always been hateful and murderous against each other. I guess we’re just seeing and feeling it so immediately in this age of instant information. But the world does seem to be rapidly moving toward deeper divisiveness and hatred of those who differ with or are different from us.

I am a Christ follower, Neale is not, yet we both believe that, while we may not be able to change the world, we can make a small difference in our circles of influence, in how we love and serve others. I remember the old adage a preacher stated many years ago, “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”

Let’s ride. Together.

The story goes of an old man walking along a seashore one morning that was littered with countless starfish washed ashore overnight. As he walked, he kept bending down and picking up starfish, tossing them back into the sea. An observer asked him, “Why bother? There’s so many here, it can’t possibly make a difference.” The old man thought for a second, then reached down and picked up another one, flinging it into the surf. He simply replied, “It makes a difference to this one.”

As Neale and I talked, he made a beautiful observation- “Think about our Road Dirt crew and community. We’re as diverse as they come. Some of us are people of faith, some of us are not. Some of us lean a bit left, others a bit right. We come from across the country and around the globe. We come from all kinds of backgrounds and lifestyles. We ride all kinds of motorcycles, and we’ve ridden in all kinds of conditions and environments. We are quite the diverse lot, I must say. And yet the tie that binds us all together is our collective love for motorcycles, and the love of riding them. Whatever our differences, that’s our common love, so therefore, our common love for each other.”

Well-said, Neale. I needed that.

I love what we have here at Road Dirt. From Harleys to Hondas, from pavement to trail, from touring to track days, we are all motorcycle-passionate. Whatever our personal differences may be, our shared love of riding binds us together, and in a way, makes us family. I love these people that I get to do Road Dirt with, and I love all of you, our readers and viewers. So let’s throw a leg over today, take a ride somewhere, share some love and life with others along the way, and light a candle against the darkness around us. Light shines brightest in the darkest places. Let’s point our headlights into it and twist the throttle.

#RIDELIFE

Rob

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