“That’s Not Appropriate”
No, we’re not talking about what’s coming up in this Friday’s Photo Caption Contest (though I do advise viewing on an empty stomach). No, this was actually what one of by clients said to me today about riding a bike to work in ordinary clothes - she’d passed me in her car some time last week.
It was the typical, “Ew, but you’ll get there all sweaty” conversation. The arguments are well rehearsed, but when I revealed that I even rode in a suit (one made out of wool rather than Lycra) last week, the look of horror was superb. I only wish I’d had a camera to catch the moment.
But that phrase: “That’s not appropriate”, what does it say about how riding a bike is seen here? Clearly not as something that’s work related - it’s a pass-time, a sport, something you do at the weekend. Certainly not anything related to any kind of professional activity.
Strange, isn’t it? I mean, riding a bike can be all those things, and certainly something to do at the weekend just because it’s fun. But need that exclude using two wheels powered porridge as sustainable fuel?
Cycling is not inappropriate; filling the world with disposable plastic crap and fast food wrappers, using a multi-ton vehicle to move a ~175# carcass a short distance and paving over paradise(nod to Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi) to accommodate such vehicles is in appropriate. But you can’t expect someone who is stuck inside a steel box to see the irony of it.
Aaron
At what point did the way we get to a business meeting become a part of an appropriate meeting? Had you walked on your hands would the meeting somehow be a failure?