1200 Free White Bikes
In the Netherlands there is the National Park de Hoge Veluwe . Within the boundaries of this park is the incomparable Kroller-Muller Museum (GO TO THIS LINK!! CHECK OUT THE PICTURE OF THE 1200 FREE WHITE BIKES!! IT’S A SIGH TO BEHOLD!!), where you can see original works by Van Gogh and Picasso among other masters. But here’s the thing. You arrive via your own strength, breath and balance, skimming across the park on one of 1200 Free White Bikes which you have acquired after having parked your gas-guzzling-life-shortener (aka: car) at the park boundary. These bikes are not difficult to ride—they are ‘cruisers’—and because you sit up straight and really can’t go very fast you are inspired to breathe, take it all in, and experience the world in the most intelligent and sane manner available to a human being. This is a stroke of genius on the part of the visionaries who created this park and should be studied by all National Park decision makers in every country on earth, not to mention every person everywhere. The Netherlands, which is one of the worlds most densely populated countries, has had to figure out how to live well with incredible pressure and restriction on driving in particular. I think the government there might issue solid black transportation bikes to each citizen at birth. We should do the same in this country. My own beloved Dutch Bike is from The Hague (Den Haag), and it has the ‘license plate’ to prove it.
I’m working on a song: working title “Pretzel Time” (the twisting and turning). In the song, there are:
1200 Free White Bikes to ride
Picasso, Van Gogh and not a car in sight
I wake bolt upright in the middle of the night
Why not Here and Now?
Also in the same song we have the Scottish Walking Rule, the latter of which I will explain in the next entry.
Have you noticed the Slow Bike Movement? How about the World Institute of Slowness? These little gems explain MUCH. I refuse to reference my beloved Dutch-ess as “alternative transportation,” for she is her own lovely, heavy, sturdy, slow, brilliantly engineered beauty. Anyone who has spent any extended time on a bike has known at least one moment of the sheer primal hatred of motor vehicles. It’s an important perspective. So let’s talk about it.
For now, though, I must hop on top of my Dutch-ess and get to the local market for some bread, veggies, red wine and perhaps a movie rental. Join me?