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Books, Covers, and Judgments

August 29^th, 2007

muse@bikerenews.com

The Red Knights Virginia Chapter IV held its annual "Where's The Fire Ride" on Sunday. The event was a great success and more folks registered for this event than any of the past WTF events. The credit for this goes in large part to our Chapter President, David Joyner, who has worked tirelessly for months pulling together sponsors, participants, and volunteers. I'll leave the details of the event up to my good buddy Rich, but I just wanted to give a big slap on the back to "President David."

This article isn't about WTF, but about an observation that occurred to me during the event. I was reminded that one of the greatest reasons for stepping out of our routine daily lives is to be reminded that everyone isn't who or what you may think they are. For the most part, this is because we don't KNOW most of the people around us, or take to time to find out. During the WTF event and later at home, my brain flashed to several examples of "stories behind the story."

Allen Kline

As I looked around at the starting point, one of our more interesting members caught my eye. His name is Allen Kline, and he is a retired Battalion Chief from the New York Fire Department (FDNY). After a long and distinguished career with the FDNY, Chief Kline and his wife (who pasted away last year) moved down to Virginia Beach to live with his daughter and son. At a chance meeting the Chief's daughter noticed one of our members wearing a vest, and asked about the Red Knights. After a short conversation, the Chief was invited to one of our meetings. That was over two years ago, and he has since been made an honorary member. On Sunday, he (with his son and daughter-in-law) was at the WTF event helping out wherever he could. I certainly saw him smiling a few times. To the best of my knowledge, he lived most of his life in New York, has never been on a motorcycle, and until a couple of years ago didn't have a clue as to who the Red Knights were. To see this gentleman in his senior years, you may not realize it, but there is a life time of experiences inside his book cover.

The next example that comes to mind is one that I have been lucky enough to encounter many times over the last few years. It was to do with my Biker eNews buddies. First, Rich (a fellow Red Knight), likes to use his "call sign" of HUN (as in Attila) to give people an example of his personality. Now with this life long Biker, you would think that conversations would revolve around the 3 B's (Bikes, Babes, Beer). Nothing could be further from the truth. We've had discussions about bug blood, dysfunctional behavior, and everything in between. In fact it was a conversation I had with Rich on Sunday that gave me the idea for this article. As we rode directly from the start point to the end point to help set up before the riders got to the finish, we stopped in the parking lot for another "who would have thought" conversation. This one was about how close the United States came to having German as a national language. This was followed by a discussion of what a difference it would have made if Catholic refugees from Spain or France had been looking for religious freedom instead of those Protestants from English in the 16th and 17th centuries. If you want a fun read, talk to Rich for a while.

Then Phil shows up fresh from Motorcycle Mania to help show his support for two of his staff writers. Of course, he is as energetic (hyper) as always. And what has this sport bike fanatic, webmaster, radio personality wound up? Moto Guzzi demo rides and antique motorcycles. The amazing thing about Phil is that he transcends the label "Biker." This term is too commonly associated with the Chopper or Cruiser communities. Phil has certainly had his share of Harley riding, but he has balanced it out with dirt bikes, metric bikes and in the last few years an undying devotion to everything FAST. Once you get to know Phil, it is easy to understand his diverse taste in motorcycles. He appreciates the art of motorcycles as machines and the pure pleasure of riding on anything with two wheels and a motor. His book cover may be a little worn and ripped in a few places, but it is because of frequent use. If he was a book, the librarian would keep him on the reference shelf.

The last example I'll use, came to me after the event when I was home watching TV. I was trying to finish up the tally for the ride and there was a show about some celebrity. The narrator was talking about some of the "tragic" events of this celebrity's life. My mind drifted back to the crowd at WTF. While I certainly don't know all of the personal stories of our members, I was reminded that two of our members have lost a wife and significant other to cancer. I don't mean to demean the suffering of the celebrity on TV, but it does bother me that somehow a celebrity becomes a tragic hero. To me it is the regular everyday folks who suffer, survive, and move on who need to be reminded that we are all better for their spirit and determination to meet life head on. For me, these folks are the GOOD BOOK.

Who knows, maybe in a future article we'll discuss that great American novel, "Sea Stories and Fire House Stories: A Guide to Crazy People."

Until then, Ride Safe.

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