According to the urban dictionary, “back in the day” is a reference to a time period previous to the present, usually recalled with a somewhat blissful vision.

And if our own history is taken into consideration, I would have to say that most of us remember the good times more than we do the bad times.

In my own life, many of my memories are compressed into what I would call “thought-bites” which are short on detail and long on the feelings that surrounded the “back in the day” event.

I remember my early twenties, taking long, pipe-smoking walks along lake Huron during the early evening hours of summer in Port Huron, Michigan. What I recall is that sense of loneliness which led me to take these walks in order to settle my wandering mind. Walking was a way to wear me out but also provided a moving medium within which I could paint my thoughts. And that is not to say that I was unhappy during that time—my walks, although precipitated by a sense of aloneness, actually were the source of some of my happiest memories.

I have since come to realize that we create coping mechanisms which enable us to bear the weight of our lives and that what we are left with, at the end of the day or decade (as it were) is who we are. We are shaped by these events, small and large, and I have made peace with that part of me that requires movement in order to feel at rest.

There was a time (keeping our back in the day theme) when I thought I was a poet. That feeling lasted until I realized that what I had to say had most likely already been said by someone else and that too in a much more elaborate way. Reading good poetry has always had a singular effect on me—that is a desire to write my own. To this end I have numerous journals of all sizes and shapes that go back years and years and are filled with my thoughts and musings.

I began Looking For The Long Ride in November of 2006 as a way to deal with the feelings I was having about leaving a church I had been a part of for 20 years. The theme fit my life and still is an effective tool that allows me to express that part of myself which  continues to move forward, talking long bike rides and endeavoring to understand the world around me.

I still enjoy reading poetry and even write my own on occasion. And though I write for my own pleasure, I believe there is always a part of any writer, musician, or artist that hopes there will be someone on the other side of this or that creation, reading, listening or looking at what has been created. I think that is called “feedback”.

So, even though I have come to recognize that I am not a poet in terms of being published and earning a living from my writing, I still have these feelings that there is something left to be said and shared with whomever has the time to follow these threads of thoughts and wanderings.

The ride is less lonely knowing this. Enjoy yours today.