Headphones (who wears them)

[pooks]

Yes, listening to music IS enjoyable while biking or jogging....but even aside from the hearing impairment, it DOES pull some of your concentration away from what's happening around you on the road at that instant, just like having your mind wandering.

Wait a sec -- now I can't think about my writing, work out plot points and characterization nuances and "listen" to dialogue in my mind while I'm cycling?

Besides, I think part of the beauty of riding a bicycle is in being in tune with your environment- I love to hear all the tiny sounds around me when I ride:
the crickets, the tiny roadside stream gurgling, the birds, the sounds of the wind whistling through my helmet, the dry leaves scuttering across the road, the sound of my tires on the asphalt, the sound of my gears changing and clicking, the scolding squirrels, the hawk high overhead, someone raking leaves, a distant dog barking, the sound of children playing in their backyards...these sounds all feed my soul when I ride down the open road, and I myself on my bike become one of the sounds as well, I become one with them all. For me, it's really a sort of spiritual experience.

But having a spiritual experience while you're riding doesn't distract you? It would me!

That sounds like a lot of distracting things going on there, to pull your attention away from the road and traffic (and potential traffic). Or maybe you're a better woman than I, and can listen to such things without having your mind wander....

I'm not picking you, Lisa. I enjoy your posts and your attitude. It just happens that these couple of posts by you seem to sum up eloquently what a number of people seem to be saying here and in previous threads.

I think it's fair to say that anybody with earpods or headphones who isn't able to hear what's going on around them is certainly a potential hazard and that's just plain stupid and dangerous.

But the attitude shared by many here that we mustn't ever let our minds wander, that we should find the experience of cycling so complete in and of itself that we don't NEED anything else, and if we do, there's something clearly lacking in us --

I think that's a lot of hooey.



Respectfully submitted by --

Pooks