This rusted life. With sore arms and a sunburned back to boot, I recall the morning madness rubbing steel wool in hundreds of thousands of rapid circles on my bike’s rusted tailpipes. Glistening in the evening’s streetlight, I laughed as
This rusted life.
With sore arms and a sunburned back to boot, I recall the morning madness rubbing steel wool in hundreds of thousands of rapid circles on my bike’s rusted tailpipes. Glistening in the evening’s streetlight, I laughed as the rain started to fall.
Not to be trifled with, the elements delivered a daily debilitating blow to even a chrome constitution.
If a bet were to be wagered, one would reasonably put their money on metal over a wee bit of salty water. Never underestimate the elements.
In my hours spent battling corrosion last weekend, I learned there are varying degrees of rust to remove, from your standard surface discoloration to rooted wreckage. Some parts can be restored to a shimmer in a couple quick swipes, other parts require a complete overhaul.
But not everything survives neglect. Not all things can be returned to their original state.
This rusted life.
My work on my motorcycle meant realizing a whole lot about living in a few short hours. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it an epiphany or anything — it wasn’t so sudden — it was more of a focusing of the lens. Or clearing off a smudge that had been blurring the big picture.
When I liken life to the constant fight against the elements in preserving the near-perfect condition of my bike when I first rode it, I think of some of Robert Pirsig’s passages in “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”
The author makes some fine points about ego causing value rigidity, which deals with the quality we place on facts and their subsequent importance in our lives.
“If you have a high evaluation of yourself then your ability to recognize new facts is weakened. Your ego isolates you from the Quality reality,” Pirsig writes. “When the facts show that you’ve just goofed, you’re not as likely to admit it. When false information makes you look good, you’re likely to believe it.”
We can scrape and scrub rusted tailpipes until our arms are exhausted and our backs are burnt to a crisp under the midday sun. Or we can devalue the fact of the corrosion and put our lives into better perspective.
Should we simply tend to problems from the get-go? Yes, that would have been the sensible solution to avoiding serious issues down the road.
Can we put in the time and rectify the situation later? Well, that depends on how deeply the rust has taken hold.
