Sports

A bicycle, the bus and the force!

“I want to go with you to Alderaan. There is nothing for me here now. I want to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father.” Luke Skywalker

Star Wars (Episode IV released in 1977) is a movie that I think people of all ages enjoy generation after generation. The fact that they keep adding to the original series (Start Wars The Force Awakens episode VII premieres on December 18) ensures that each generation will see at least the most recent release, if not all of the movies.

Every year when Halloween comes around, I see kids dressed up as various characters from the Star Wars movies. Halloween is not until Saturday and I already got to see Luke Skywalker for the first time! I was already on the bus waiting for him to get out of the park-n-ride. A little boy kept walking and before I could see him, he spoke up and said to the driver, “I like your mustache!”

“Thank you,” replied the driver. I looked up from my book and saw a boy walking down the hall in a Luke Skywalker plainclothes suit. It looked adorable!

I went back to my book. I was heading to a Meetup and needed to be intellectually prepared. I was frustrated at the amount of time it was taking me to get there. The Meetup was 9.9 miles away in Louisville. Not far away, you might think. But because of how the buses work here in the suburbs, the 9.9 was null and void. For me, getting there was an estimated 80-minute bus ride.

That long journey is frustrating in two ways:

1) The mental aspect of it. All I kept thinking is that this place is only 20 minutes away, but I have no control over how fast I can get there.

2) One hour and twenty-two minutes of limited activity consumes a good part of the working day. While I am currently an unemployed writer (my husband’s joke) I still have things that I have to do in the day that cannot be solved at any other time.

“Your lack of faith seems disturbing to me.” Darth vader

Skywalker sat with his mother a few rows from me and was a charlatan the entire trip. Yes, I eavesdropped on a 3-year-old boy and his mother. The mother kept saying, “This is our last bus today.” “You have to stay awake and help me. You have to help me because we have a flat tire on our bike.”

From where we both boarded the bus at the park-n-ride to the stop in Louisville, where Skywalker exited the boat, it was a 50 minute ride alone. When I got off at my stop and crossed the street to where the Meetup was, I really felt like a wimp. I didn’t have to bother with getting a bike out of the front of the bus. I didn’t have to worry about taking care of someone. I didn’t have to worry about biking with a flat tire and a child to my destination. I just had to worry about me, me and me.

Props for Skywalker’s mother. I never bother taking my bike on the bus. I imagine it too complicated. I would need help getting it on and off the bike rack and I don’t want to disturb the driver. I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like to ride public transport with a young child. I still believe that an 80 minute trip for a short distance is ridiculous. At least I was able to get out without having to pay for a taxi or Uber. I feel like it was no coincidence that I was in the same boat as Luke Skywalker. Being able to compare my trip with his was a test of patience and understanding.

“Patience. Use force. Think.” Obi-wan Kenobi

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