THE BIKER <\/strong>
\nWord Count: 305<\/p>\n

He pulled out behind me and I saw him in the rear view mirror. An older guy, handlebar mustache, black sleeveless shirt, golden arms holding steady on a Harley hog. I was doing 55 in a 50, but I knew he would have liked to hit the wind a little faster, a little cooler on this sunny hot Sunday morning. I slowed a bit and pulled over just a tad to let him go by in the only passing zone on the twisty river road. He roared by, but not too fast. He must be a local, knowing the church and a 30 mph zone was just ahead.<\/p>\n

But we rode together for a little while and I got to know him better. A heavy-beaded string of rosary beads hung backwards on his neck. The crucifix squarely centered on his back. A Harley dude, I think, and yet for a week or two, I had a 350 of my own once. And rode it 30 ft. before I dumped it like Artie Johnson\u2019s trike. Now I\u2019m a Honda CRV. A middle-ager\u2019s car despite the standard equipment table and ice bucket in the back that was supposed to sell it to consumers as a party car. I click to roll the window down, a middle-ager\u2019s version of freedom and the wind in my hair.<\/p>\n

He made a lefthand turn into the church lot. I went on by; for me, not God but groceries are my routine. I think of my own faith, jaded and worn around the edges. A thin strand that ties me back to childhood and unquestioning belief. I think of the biker, zooming into Sunday mass and trusting God so strongly that he didn\u2019t wear a helmet. That\u2019s faith, I guess. That\u2019s honest faith. And suddenly I have to laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE BIKER  Word Count: 305 He pulled out behind me and I saw him in the rear view mirror. An older guy, handlebar mustache, black sleeveless shirt, golden arms holding steady on a Harley hog. I was doing 55 in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-100-days-2011","category-psychological-realism","tag-psychological-realism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/susangibb.net\/blog3\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}