Riding Off To A Better Place

I didn't know Willy all that well, but he seemed like a good guy.

Of the few times that I rode with him, and talked to him, he seemed like a guy who didn't ask for much, and at the same time didn't expect to be asked much of.

"All I ever wanted was to be free,
And that's the way it turned out be."
  - Jim McGuinn

I remember years ago, when I was just a teenager, I was teaching my little brother how to play with his new toy. It was a plastic box with odd-shaped holes cut into the sides, and it came with plastic pieces designed to fit into these holes. The goal was to put the round piece into the round hole, and the square piece into the square hole, etc.

I showed him that there was a way to force the triangular-shaped piece into the square-shaped hole if you used some ingenuity, and some elbow grease. It took awhile, and I had to squeeze the piece, but I finally got it through the hole. I don't know if my brother learned anything from watching me.

I sometimes wonder if Willy was a triangular-shaped piece that spent his whole life being forced into odd-sized holes. In reality, none of us ever finds ourselves fitting into this world seamlessly; we're always having to accommodate and tolerate. It's a contest of how well you can adapt and outsmart, and never about being yourself. After so many years you grow weary, and wonder if there's a better place.

They say that opposites attract. But a free spirit never resists. It just finds the path of least resistance, until finally there's no where to go.