First Impressions

I was not considering first impressions as I screeched at my fellow seminarians: "HELP! I am going to fall! Help me!" They already were helping me balance the motorcycle as we loaded it down the ramp of the trailer, but that didn't matter I kept yelling. I was so scared! But we got it down with only minor injuries to my new neighbor, but she said her ribs aren't bruised too badly.

I am all settled in my apartment and can't believe I owned this much stuff, coming from such a tiny room at the catholic worker. It all fits nicely in this apartment. I do enjoy unpacking slowly, considering where and from whom I received all these things. Each rock, picture, blanket, book, scarf and basket has a story. I enjoyed putting magnets on my fridge that one of the regular shower guests at Guadalupe House made. She would often sing loudly in the shower. I do not know why she made up hundreds of magnets, but she did and says she is continuing to work on somemore. I look at her magnets and all the gifts that I have been given and feel thankful for everywhere I've been and all the relationships I have developed.
Tomorrow I will venture out (before the heat of the day) on my bicycle to get a new oil filter, oil and gas for my motorcycle. This will be my first experience doing my own motorcycle maintenance and I hope to continue to work at it.

Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it's some kind of a "knack" or some kind of "affinity for machines" in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a "short between the earphones," failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself. I said yesterday that the ghost of rationality was what Phædrus pursued and what led to his insanity, but to get into that it's vital to stay with down-to-earth examples of rationality, so as not to get lost in generalities no one else can understand. Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included. -Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance