Prologue to "Bessie and Me: How a Motorcycle Saved My Life"

‘Life's just much too hard today,
I hear ev'ry mother say
The pursuit of happiness just seems a bore
And if you take more of those, you will get an overdose
No more running for the shelter of a mother's little helper
They just helped you on your way through your busy dying day.”

~ The Rolling Stones

Prologue

"Bessie and Me: How a Motorcycle Saved My Life" - A Memoir

As Bessie and Me turned the corner and rolled down the driveway for the first time in three weeks, the odometer turned over 5,835 miles. I switched the bike off and sat still for a few minutes, bowing my head and silently thanking God for a safe journey.  Sitting astride Bessie, gritty, sweaty, and utterly exhausted, I realized this particular journey wasn’t just another ‘road trip,’ it was a psychological salvation, it was a spiritual renewal and it was a simple, arduous trip that literally saved my life.

I have always wanted to write a book; not that my life thus far has been spectacular, exemplary, or unforgettable…perhaps only to me. I have read a plethora of  books that have helped ameliorate the pain of whatever ‘moment,’ I was in with my life; books that ‘spoke’ to me of struggle, salvation, redemption, and discovery. Books that were healing and spiritual in nature.  After reaping the benefit of all those books, I always ended my reading with the same conviction - “I can do that.” I desired to take my struggle, my pain, my temporary loss of direction, my intermittent victories, and write, which in itself, is a long overdue journey undertaken. 

As the miles rolled out behind me on this particular summer, so did the words in my head, unfurling a ribbon of asphalt, ideas, and inspiration in my wake. I realized as I cruised down the road on Bessie, 'the most exciting thing I had ever put between my legs,'  that SHE had saved my life. This 800 pounds of gleaming steel and chrome, with the power equivalent of 60 horses and the 100 + years of the Harley Davidson legend behind her, had become my Buddha, my therapist, my best friend, my ‘little yellow pill,’  my savior, and my nirvana.

This book is for my two daughters; two beautiful, brilliant, and talented young women who any mother would be proud to say, ‘yeah, they’re mine.’ May you never know my struggles; and may those of your own be valuable lessons in disguise.  And for any woman who has hit the wall in her journey; whatever point, whatever age, station, or junction.   Women who have felt like I have felt; who reached a critical point in their life; empty nest, clenched fist, lack of purpose, misdirection, more-than-middle-age and desperately exclaiming, ‘is this ALL there IS for chrissakes??!!’  

The words have always been in my head and over the years it has gotten absurdly crowded in there. It’s not as though they have come out in a torrent, but a slow trickle, then a steady stream.

This is the story of a woman, a motorcycle, and several thousand miles of pavement; one part travel journal, one part personal diary, one part psychological salvation, one part spiritual renewal...which finally constitutes a WHOLE.

To be continued in Chapter One of  "Bessie and Me" on bessieandme.blogspot.com