Digging deeper into the same groove

Ten years ago yesterday I started doing this regular thing where I ride my bike over a particular hill. I had just turned 40. In significant ways my life was not much different then from my life today: a computer geek dad working for nonprofits, who rode his bike a lot. In the last ten years I’ve been digging deeper into the same groove. Computers, bikes, kids, dogs.

When I rewind the tape of my life & pause at 10-year intervals, I take note of which grooves were new: in Spring 2002 I had no kids, in Spring 1992 I had no dogs, in Spring 1982 I had no computers. There were of course other grooves that I failed to wear deeper; and grooves I never wore into at all.

In 1982, “bikes” was how kids went places. (Haven’t you ever seen E.T.?) It was the easiest, cheapest freedom available. That has remained steadily true, whether I was 10, or 20, or 30, or 40, or 50.

I have been digging deeper into that groove for 40 years.

This is the condensed version of a longer self-indulgent piece