An ode to the long lost joy ride

It’s a cold November day. It’s uncomfortably cold. The wind is unkind.

But this is Thanksgiving Day and it’s the crucial dead space between nothing to do and turkey time.

My brother and I grab our bikes, chart a course across the river to nowhere in particular and back. It has great views of the river, but I don’t expect anything spectacular on a gray day like today.

The bike ride isn’t about transportation, speed or fitness. It’s just a fun, little loop.

Rides like this are standard fare in road cycling even on cold days. If you like to ride, you don’t think much about it.

But, during this Christmas season, it strikes me as something monumental.

 

When We Lose Joy

Joyriding is a car thing. Rather, it was a car thing.

Back when cars were fun, people drove for the fun of it.

Perhaps people still do. Do you? Can you think of a time when you got into your car and drove around with nowhere in particular to go? It probably beats watching TV.

Here in America, I say we lost the magic of cars.

We go too many places in our cars. We’ve been stuck in traffic too much. We have limited access to alternatives. We must drive. We need to drive.

We love driving so much, we can’t wait until it’s over. We only associate driving with a necessity to get from point A to B.

It’s a tragedy of dependence.

I think that’s why joyriding in cars isn’t a thing anymore and that’s sad.

 

The Advent of Adventure

Riding bikes, on the other hand, has the advantage of being just for fun.

Sure, I’m always quick to say that bikes are immensely practical machines. They’re very convenient on short trips and cost effective over many miles.

But, broadly speaking, they have a deeper tie to recreation than transportation.

Kids ride bikes in circles. You go to a park and see friends on bikes together.

Even if you ride for fitness, the endorphins bubble up in your lungs like giggles in your throat. The breeze in your hair, the sun in the trees. Bike riding is a joyful activity.

 

An die Freude (To Joy)

At Christmas time, I hear Joy to the World and I can’t hear that song without thinking of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy and Friedrich Schiller’s poem by the same name. And I can’t think of Ode to Joy without thinking of Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov.”

In it, Dostoyevsky seizes on the themes of Ode to Joy, such as the joyful worm contrasted with the joyful cherub standing before God, and creates characters around those themes. One character is a worm and another is a cherub and they grapple with their purpose, their joys, their cynicism and the mysterious world where they coexist.

In true Dostoyevsky fashion, there is a scene where Alexei is overwhelmed with the beauty of joy in a world of sorrow and gives the earth a kiss. It’s a direct reference to Schiller’s line “Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt!”

It’s as though writing a poem about the heights and depths of joy is so profound that both Beethoven and Dostoyevsky needed to find some outlet for directly adapting it.

I’m sympathetic to the intense emotion Schiller, Beethoven and Dostoyevsky express. Spend some time contemplating the full measure of joy and you’ll understand too.

It’s a kindness to the human race that we can experience joy. There’s nothing in the world that naturally necessitates the pleasure of happy children on Christmas Day. It exists nonetheless. 

Throughout most seasons, we take joy for granted. But Christmas comes around and we wish each glad tidings of great joy, celebrating and drinking deeply of joy’s mysterious generosity.

It’s this context where the joy ride becomes more than a waste of time. It becomes a contemplation of all that joy brings to the world. It’s a worship session for a world where the joy ride is possible.

And that makes me happy.

Wishing you and your family joy this Christmas season.