Do you ever get flashes of inspiration/enlightenment/understanding? How about the situation where you see or here of something that someone has invented and you feel a bit affronted because you had that idea ages ago (but never did anything with it - [insert expletive of choice] )? It's happened to me, occasionally, and I suspect everyone has experienced at least one of those scenarios.
I had one of those moments today. I had to do a fair bit of driving, on narrow roads, and at one point got stuck behind a cyclist while a long line of oncoming vehicles went by. Not having to concentrate particularly hard on driving (the cyclist was going as fast as his little legs could manage, but it was up a slight gradient so progress was slow), my mind had spare capacity to wonder why cyclists don't fall over.
More specifically, I was wondering why it's very hard to prevent yourself from falling off your bike if you take your feet off the ground when it's stationary (oh yes! now I'm thinking about those 'slow bicycle races' I participated in as a youngster), but as soon as you start to peddle along, or even roll forwards, falling off just isn't much of an issue anymore. That was the point when I suddenly understood.
Riding a bike is just controlling the direction of your fall. Instead of falling sideways, with the painful results which often accompany such a manouvre, riding is simply falling forwards, in the direction you want to go. And seeing as you can only fall in one direction, once you get moving, that's the direction of your fall, and that's why you don't fall off sideways.
Ouch!
Now, I have to accept that you might be thinking, "Duh! Everyone knows that!", but to the best of my knowledge, that piece of insight came to me without having heard or read it elsewhere. I suppose, though, I could have simply forgotten. Maybe I read it years ago in one of those little Reader's Digest books which one would find in the waiting room of the Doctor's or Dentist's surgery. Or perhaps it's splattered all over the internet and I've got some sort of mental block which causes me to forget the numerous times I've clicked that link. Oh...it's so depressing!
Humour me, let me continue in my self-satisfied ignorance for a little longer. Let me wallow in the glory of my innovative thought, even if I am deluding myself. I, for one, will resist the temptation to search the internet for all those splattered articles, for at least twenty-four hours. Yes, I'll have my cake and eat it too!
Long Line Of Cars is on the Comfort Eagle album.
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