US Highway 129 just north of Robbinsville, NC is known as the Tail of the Dragon... 318 curves in 11 short miles. That was my destination last summer when tragedy befell my last motorcycle, so yesterday was a conquering move... not just with regard to the road, but finishing what I wanted to accomplish last summer.
It was quite a ride to say the least! I left Erwin, TN early in the morning, and had a beautiful morning ride through the Great Smokey Mountains to Asheville, NC then west to US 129. I had a magnificent breakfast at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort which is at the southern entry to the Dragon. Then it was off to slay the dragon!
It was a beautiful day, almost no one on the road. What an amazing ride... you really gotta focus on the road, for the entire 11 miles, I hardly got out of second gear!
Well, after the Dragon, I headed south towards Alabama, and my family. Here was the lesson of the day: Don't always trust your instincts.
As I was riding I was thinking about the whole fate versus free will argument. Not from a necessarily religious perspective, but from a perspective of whether we just sit back and let life happen to us, or do we actively try to make our lives work for us. After all, if we just sit back and let things happen then life becomes nothing more than birth --> work --> family --> death. How miserable is that!
Funny thing is that misery is where most people exist, very much so to include myself. It takes action to counter that cycle. It takes desire and determination to fight the gravity of fate and make our free will work for us.
I need to work that a lot more. I have been a victim of circumstance all too often. I have had my moments... meeting Michelle, transitioning out of and back into the Army. But I am at a crossroads again. I retire (or transition) from the Army in less than a year.
Will I let life just happen, or can I be a force of free will and make my life work for me and my family?
It was quite a ride to say the least! I left Erwin, TN early in the morning, and had a beautiful morning ride through the Great Smokey Mountains to Asheville, NC then west to US 129. I had a magnificent breakfast at the Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort which is at the southern entry to the Dragon. Then it was off to slay the dragon!
It was a beautiful day, almost no one on the road. What an amazing ride... you really gotta focus on the road, for the entire 11 miles, I hardly got out of second gear!
Well, after the Dragon, I headed south towards Alabama, and my family. Here was the lesson of the day: Don't always trust your instincts.
As I was riding I was thinking about the whole fate versus free will argument. Not from a necessarily religious perspective, but from a perspective of whether we just sit back and let life happen to us, or do we actively try to make our lives work for us. After all, if we just sit back and let things happen then life becomes nothing more than birth --> work --> family --> death. How miserable is that!
Funny thing is that misery is where most people exist, very much so to include myself. It takes action to counter that cycle. It takes desire and determination to fight the gravity of fate and make our free will work for us.
I need to work that a lot more. I have been a victim of circumstance all too often. I have had my moments... meeting Michelle, transitioning out of and back into the Army. But I am at a crossroads again. I retire (or transition) from the Army in less than a year.
Will I let life just happen, or can I be a force of free will and make my life work for me and my family?
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