Some People Just Can’t Stop

 When I wrote for a newspaper, a cop told me that he and other officers catch many criminals because they trip themselves up. One common way, he told me, is that the perps try to commit the same crime again.  This is particularly true, he said, of thieves.

Such was the fate of a would-be two-time bike thief in University Circle, Ohio.  A man caught him in the act of trying to steal his girlfriend’s bike.

The crook was on a bike: the one he stole from the man a month earlier.  He was arrested and oh, by the way, had a warrant for his arrest—for yet another theft case.

The Birth Of Evolution

 The 12th of February.  When I was in elementary school, this day was a holiday, in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday.

Less commonly known, at least in the US, is that he shares a birthdate—in 1809–with someone who changed the course of history, if in a different way.

I am talking about Charles Darwin.

Now that I think of it, they have more in common than having been born on the same day. Darwin’s theory explains how life forms adapt and change in response to their conditions.  Lincoln’s work was both a cause and effect of the ways in which his country was changing and in which human minds and spirits were changing, and still must change.

So, perhaps, we could say that while Darwin gave us the theory of physical evolution, Lincoln understood and worked for mental and spiritual evolution.

I would love for this date to be celebrated as Lincoln’s birthday.  And I dare Texas, Florida or any other state—or this country—to commemorate Darwin on this day!

Life Lessons

 No matter how strong your legs,

No matter how quick your reflexes,

No matter how wide your peripheral vision,

No matter how proficient a cyclist you are,

In, ahem, midlife you realize that you will never again do some of the rides you did when you were young!