I posted this comment on the Miami Critical Mass Meetup Group site. I think it has broader significance,
so here it is…
There are several monthly rides now. Hopefully, the numbers will grow.
I am cheered when I read about rides in which I do not participate, due to timing or location.
I usually participate in the second Saturday rides that are this site’s main focus. I enjoy the challenge of the early (for me) starting time, as well as the variation of starting point. When the starting point is the Metro-Dade government center, I’m relieved that it is only a few blocks from home; when it is further away, I look forward to the challenge.
Equally, I appreciate the fixed starting point of the Friday night ride.
There is something special about arriving at that same place, day and time once a month and watching the crowd gather…
This is the date of a developing, worldwide tradition.
And this is how traditions evolve. Evolution is a dynamic of the material reality that is not limited to biological processes.
There are aspects of human society that in order to function effectively, must be allowed to manifest the cumulative effect of all voluntary human interactions that pertain; i.e., they cannot exist as a consciously preplanned authority-directed phenomena.
[Think about that, health care “reform” advocates.]
In some matters, we must either cast our shared fate to the winds of spontaneous social interaction or suffer the limitations of the individual to who’s will we would be downwardly bent…
—The Bikemessenger