Yesterday, I had to move my motorcycle around a little bit. So, I did a little bit of driving it here and there with no helmet on.
 
At least here in Cali, it is the law that you must wear a helmet which driving your motorcycle. It has been that way since I believe 1991. I know there are some states, like Arizona, where a helmet is not required. I also know that is the state with the highest rate of motorcycles deaths and injuries in the country.  
 
But, just in my little bit of putting around yesterday, I was reminded of just how free it feels when you ride a motorcycle with no helmet. Just in those few moments it was so freeing.
 
Back in the day, before helmets were required, I never wore one. It was such a feeling, to be jamming along, the wind in my hair—just so free…
 
But, like many others, I paid the price. I mean, when I was twenty-one years old there was a girl who caused a major accident with me and I was very close to death. My skull fractured in a million places. My bones broken and my body bruised. I was never the same. My entire life, since that point when I was twenty-one, was defined/redefined by that accident.
 
I am told it was young lady behind the wheel of her parent’s Mercedes, who caused the accident. Do you think she ever thinks about it? Doubt it. Do you believe, all these years later, she even remembers? Probably not. But, she came close to killing me and, most certainly, she changed the rest of my life, in a negative way, forever.
 
Had I been wearing a helmet, would the outcome have been different? Most probably. But then, like yesterday, the feeling of not having one on was/is so free.

…And, of course, that’s not the only motorcycle accident I have had. They are dangerous!
 
I don’t really ride my motorcycle very much anymore. It just seems, that of late, everyone just drives so badly—so self-thinking and self-centered. I am frequently getting run out of the lane and stuff. That does not mean that I do not miss the once-upon-a-time. That feeling of freedom. Of climbing on the bike, kickstarting it, taking off, and riding in the wind.
 
I guess that’s the thing about life. There is the life we want to live. Maybe even the life we remember once living. Then, there is the reality of where we find ourselves in our current life. What once was, can never be again. Though we may have moments where we can relive the memory, once it is gone it is gone, and it will be gone forever.
 
So sad. But, so true.