Found this amongst my stuff.
The Art of the Motorcycle
The difference between the art of motorcycling and a motorcycle race is...
A race has a beginning and an end.
But art is something that you begin, and will never finish, not ever.
You only improve, you never arrive.
A race is only a test of the progress you've made in this art, the art of riding a motorcycle.
Perfection is sometimes touchable, but never one's possession.
It can't be forced, it only happens.
No other machine that propels you across the surface of the earth provides such dimensions of control, as does the motorcycle.
No other machine offers such performance in such a compact package, as does the motorcycle.
No other machine can delight all the senses, as does the motorcycle.
No other machine punishes you for your mistakes, as does the motorcycle.
No other machine can make you feel so alive, while holding you so close to death, as does the motorcycle.
They demand payment, your fullest attention, and in return they give back to you a place of peace, a warp in time, a place where even the inner clock of your soul, must stand still.
Another dimension, a place in time that is here and now only, a place with no future or past; a chance to live, just and only, within the thousandth of a tick in time, no further ahead, no farther behind.
They infest your mind, your thoughts and heart with their sensuous shapes, their symmetry, and their purposeful "come hither" looks.
Their siren song draws you, like mermaids at sea drawing sailors to their demise.
You live for their touch, their smell, their hardness and softness, colors, aluminum and chrome, rubber and leather, all balanced delightfully, a functioning piece of artwork.
You live for their brutal acceleration and braking, their sounds and vibrations, their diverse ways of putting a corner behind you, like invisible sculptures left behind.
The motorcycle becomes your brush, and the highway, your canvas.
You are an artist, if you have touched this world with your soul.
And you realize, that no matter how far you have come, you still have only just begun.
This is the nature of art.
Which transcends all limits of life.
Live Well, Doug Boughton
