Go a little crazy - Ride your bike without a Helmet

In my neck of the woods, we don’t care much for laws. We let our dogs run off leashes, don’t send our kids to school if they would rather go fishing and when we are feeling really crazy, we ride out bikes without helmets!  Our kinda people are mountain people and like to be left alone.   However, with once thriving industries like mining and logging closing down, we rely more heavily on tourism and that’s when the fuss starts.   These tourists!   You could be riding your bike down a country road all peaceful, and inevitably they want to invade your peace and tell you how you are not following some law!!!   And that was me one day while riding my bike, peddling along imagining myself like some great warrior on my trusty steed under the warm spring sun.  Feeling the wind in my hair, I had no helmet on  while I recited -1 Samuel,

 “He had a bronze helmet on his head, and he was clothed with scale-armor which weighed five thousand shekels of bronze.”

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 And then I heard a deep huffing and puffing from behind.  I knew what it was, but I looked anyway…. It was a Flat Lander… that means someone who comes from the valley up to the mountains just to ruin your day.  “Excuse me!” the woman yells, “excuse me!” I begin to peddle faster, and my dog runs up along side of me effortlessly.  I think to myself about the woman trying desperately to catch up to me on this deserted dirt forest road,

“who the heck does she think she is?” 

I decided to slow down, let her catch up and then I stopped looked her square in the eyes. She stops her bike, and I stare at her, complete with florescent bike gear, pads, gloves and a helmet!  Struggling to catch her breath, she says, “your dog needs to be on a leash!”  I suck some air in-between my teeth, let out a sigh and say, “you’re in the mountains lady, if you put your dog on a leash, the mountain lions will go after both of you and not just the dog!”  She looks at me horrified, since we all know that deep down, her real issue was about controlling another person and not really the dog leash thing.   She thanks me for my nature survival tip and then begins to nervously wait for her husband, while scanning the horizon looking for mountain lions. I peddled off,  watching her silhouette get smaller.

 I think that the modern world (flat-landers) are obsessed with laws and safety- and sure we live longer- but as a consequence, some have lost their self-sufficiency, personal integrity, and religious faith. And although she might have a bike helmet on, there was something missing in her moral posturing, rather than a regular helmet, she should hope for a Helmet of salvation. Ezekiel.