![]() No punishment would be unreasonable, and perhaps unbeknownst to us, a just atonement will be served in the next life.īut life is hard, and each of us can bemoan a multiplicity of tribulations. To steal a bike that has carried its companion countless miles in sun and rain, during night and day, on paths urban and pastoral, is to deprive someone of an irreplaceable part of themselves. ![]() ![]() But this is only far-fetched in the scientific sense, and anybody who has spent innumerable fond hours on a particular bicycle would concede that their affection for the object is of kindred nature.Īlong this line of thought, bike thieves should be vilified with the same merciless execration that we feel for black market organ harvesters. Similarly, the bicycles of the village have been known to sneak about on their own accord, relocating to cozier environs or oddly parking themselves in front of refrigerators. When walking, the people must move at a certain speed lest they fall to one side or the other, and must prop themselves against a means of support when at a standstill. The story features bicycle-obsessed police officers whose fellow villagers have spent so much time on bikes that human and machine have begun to absorb each other's atoms and characteristics. Flann O'Brien details this most consummately, and hilariously, in his posthumously-published novel The Third Policeman. Little by little, Sarah customized it to her own specifications, in the process managing to improve a bicycle that was immaculate from the outset… And then somebody stole it.ĭespite conscious efforts to avoid excessive sentimentality for material possessions, I'm very familiar with the extent to which one can become attached to a bicycle. It was a true rarity a beautiful purple Nishiki, probably 40-years-old but seemingly ageless. My friend and colleague, Sarah, had been involuntarily relieved of her beloved bicycle. I was out of town for the weekend when I received the heartbreaking news.
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