Heather > Recent Status Updates

“I had expected a painful reaction to follow my sudden transference from Roz (bike) to Rob (horse) but there’s a most convenient custom throughout Pakistan which has helped my muscles enormously…I’ve found myself being thoroughly massaged from head to toe every evening…by kindly women who appear out of nowhere…”
Oh!

From Chapter 35, MH’s father’s funeral:

“Maybe he did love me.”

From Chapter 23 re: Murray’s mother insisting he have “Dorothy Hamilton & Mary Loe Retton haircuts as a kid:

“Who’s an all-American girl?!?
This guy!”

“Rigid thinking is a trauma response.”

Name check of Andrea Pitzer regarding concentration camps.

“‘Yeah, but you’re exceptional.’
‘I’d gone from feral to fairly capable…She admired my hustle…. But I had never been an exceptional kid. I wasted a lot of time watching (TV); a solid A-/B+ student with a slightly above average ACT score; I behaved badly at times…. Drank more than the daughter of an alcoholic should; mouthed off to teachers and my parents….’”

“And this is where it gets muddy because I go by the pronouns he, his, him. I identify as a trans man in solidarity with and to support my community. But I would rather not constantly be asked how I identify and what my pronouns are. That has been my political issue from day one: ‘I don’t want to be identified by my gender; I want to be identified as an equal.’l

“…the stars & bars have come to represent a universal symbol of rebellion in some kind of a low-rent way. With the declining power of unions & the concurrent rise of migrants from KY & WV, Kahn described the shift as ‘the southernization of Ohio’ which is why the hillbilly huckster J.D. Vance can run for senate & beat the guy who represented everything Ohio sided to be.”

“…unfortunately all the drinking is done before dinner here (Pakistan), so that by bedtime one has sobered up.”

“…I could not get over the feeling of being an outsider in my homey…”

“My friends here are paralyzed with horror at the thought of anyone going on a five-motto with only a saddlebag of Lyft, but the fact is that the further you travel the less you find you need and I see no sense in frolicking around the Himalayas with a load of inessentials.”

“It is not poetry’s fault that it has so small an audience, so little effect upon the frightened, money-loving world.”

(In Kabul)
“It’s funny to see the sedate Embassy staffs scooting round on bicycles or we, but it does mean that for at least two years of their existence they lead healthy lives with daily exercise.”

“I’m afraid I’ve very little patience with people who complain indignantly about places like Afghanistan being primitive. Why didn’t they a) find that out before coming here and then b) fly from Lahore to London?”

This really is a beautiful country and every mile from Teheran was pure joy- as much the joy of space and silence as of visual loveliness.”

“The preparations had been simple; one of the advantages of cycling is that it automatically prevents a journey from becoming an Expedition.”

HA!

“Eve would want us to remember her resistance…”

(but) “He was one of the good guys.”

“We can create a world in which cars are not necessary for full enfranchisement in the community.”

Parking cars on the street overnight was prohibited in New York City until 1950!!

“Building our cities and towns to accommodate cars first and people as an afterthought, if at all, has created a world in which many of us never have to think about what anyone else needs or wants.”

Donald Appleyard, author of 1981 book, LIVABLE STREETS, was killed by a speed drunk driver the next year.

“…previous studies suggesting that increased access to transit may increase physical activity among transit users and may lead to decreased healthcare’s expenditures.”

“America is famous for its ‘rugged individualism,’ a cowboy-tough attitude that puts responsibility on each of us to take care of ourselves, rather than acknowledging that people need help from each other to live happy, safe, and productive lives.”

“The researchers said that while such behavior is technically illegal, ‘most bicyclists can generally be described as rational individuals trying to function safely and efficiently given the context and norms of where they live and the transportation system in front of them.’”

Moral panic = a majoritarian backlash to social progress that benefits minority groups.

“It’s simple to say cyclists should obey traffic laws just like‘everyone else,’ but it’s sometimes hard to notice that nobody else obeys traffic laws.”

“…but today is not the day.

Today, April 2, 1992.”

“I have died too many deaths that were not mine.”

“Tomorrow belongs to those of us who conceive of it belonging to us all.”